If there is one word for me to describe 2025, that’d be “valleys”! In fact, it started with a high point for me with the 08th batch of Sunflower Film Alliance (SFA) new members. This peak was followed by a hollow of that collective and my personal/family issues. The tent was professionally picked up from last September until it dropped again with our Cambodian border clash. Sounds familiar to you? Well, let’s discover our differences through the following five lessons I’ve embraced through last year.
1. An Obvious Leak Needs Fixing, not Fixating on!
Although my annual mission like SFA started off brightly with a slightly increased number of members last year, the team dynamism of a crew fell apart without my knowledge. No matter how many times I tried to fix it with or for them, the leak was so subtle that I stopped fixating my thought on it. Why? If I have already done my best, the rest is their Karma!
2. Compromise Can Affect Personal Boundaries
In February, I got accepted with another two fellows of Asia for Peace Innovators Forum for its accelerated program in Sri Lanka. Until then, our “team” was narrowed down from 8 members to 3. Somehow, I found myself between the two remaining fellows, especially in professional terms! While one sought to expand the project, the other preferred to stick to her original plan. Although my stand was to ask them for some compromise, the initiator ended up drawing her line and not promising any expansion, unless adequate conditions are met for such an update.
3. Financial Balance Matches Demands with Supplies
This was not my first time to learn this lesson. Somehow, Chaktomuk Short Film Festival‘s fund shortage enhanced my practice to scale down our operations to match our realities. Of course, I admit that this decision affects our (volunteer) team’s expectations. Yet, I had no alternative but to tell them the truth, despite our festival’s vulnerability to such recurrent gaps. The subsidies from community partners like Phare Ponleu Selapak and S’Art Urban Art Festival, did allow us to maintain our provincial momentum.
4. Trust the Process, already Proved by your Experience
This year, near our main festival period, we were fortunate enough to welcome a veteran documentary maker to support our partnership team, with his operations experience from overseas work. Through his studies, he realized how he could help CSFF grow beyond our upcoming 15th edition. Although I had sensed some insecurity during our “trust-fall” activity (part of volunteer warm-up exercises), I might as well follow his initiatives. Only near the end of 2025 did he reveal to me he hit the financial deadlock as a freelancer. So he needed a full-time job for his survival. Once again, that activity actually signaled me something I should have considered before placing any trust on someone.
5. Leaders Make Decisions Right
Owing to our border issues with Thailand, CSFF’s provincial re-screenings hit its side effect last December. Even though I decided to personally keep our last rescreening in Siem Reap town, the nearby bombing could not keep my team comfortable enough to stay on. As I learned that I couldn’t blame them for such instant measures, I was still looking for ways to make up for this missed session. Eventually, my fellow artists and practitioners agreed for me to conduct a mini-screening at Run Ta Ek, as part of our community art program for the villagers and nearby refugees.
Of course, 2025 may not be as fulfilling as I expected, despite my ongoing efforts. It did humble me/us to survive that series of crisis. My hope is for 2026 to develop our mission for the next generations of filmmakers from surviving to thriving.
PS: My family life? Let’s call it a “D-stage” from now on!
