Filmmaker ChanChrisna "Kayleb" Lee Joins Art for Kep to Research How to Grow a Ghost
- Editorial team
- 6 hours ago
- 1 min read
Art for Kep has opened "Ten Boats+," an international call inviting artists, collectives, organizations, and communities to transform ten or more retired wooden fishing boats from Kep into contemporary artworks, ahead of Kep International Art Week — Edition 01, taking place 11–14 December 2026 on Cambodia's southern coast.
A Filmmaker Shaped by Two Histories
Lee's path to filmmaking began far from a set. Born into a Khmer diaspora family that survived the Cambodian genocide, he grew up in a household where the arts had once carried real danger — during the Khmer Rouge years, artists, educators, and intellectuals were systematically targeted, leaving a lasting wariness around creative pursuits in many survivor families, his own included. Lee found his way to storytelling anyway, first in private: writing, drawing, and experimenting with editing software as a teenager.
He later served as a combat videographer and photographer with the United States Marine Corps, an experience that eventually pushed him back toward the arts rather than away from them. Since then, his short films — including Papaya, which screened at Asian American and Pacific Islander film festivals across the United States — have been supported by industry programs such as the Cannes Student Program, The Academy Gold Program, and AICP's mentoring initiative. He is currently completing a graduate film program, through which his next project has taken shape.
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