the golden voice

a graphic novel by Gregory Cahill and Kat Baumann

A forthcoming graphic novel based on the life of Ros Serey Sothea Written by Gregory Cahill Illustrated by Kat Baumann

Ros Serey Sothea was Cambodia’s most popular and beloved female singer of the 1960’s and 70’s. Boasting a music catalogue of nearly a thousand songs in every conceivable genre, Sothea was a recording studio juggernaut with a distinctly soaring angelic voice. She was dubbed “the golden voice of the royal capital” by Prince Norodom Sihanouk. But as the Vietnam War spilled over into neighboring Cambodia, the country devolved into a brutal war of its own. After the communist Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975, the Cambodian music scene came to a screeching halt. Most artists of the era, including Ros Serey Sothea, died in the infamous Khmer Rouge genocide.

The first time I heard Ros Serey Sothea was in a movie called City of Ghosts, directed by Matt Dillon. I bought the soundtrack, and found myself listening to her music on repeat for weeks. As an American, I didn’t know what she was saying, but I could feel what she was saying. I think that’s a dying art form – singers who convey the emotion of their lyrics so vividly, that the listener feels it too. When I learned about her tragically early death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, that was a sort of ‘Eureka!’ moment. Not only was her music so good, but the story behind the music was extremely powerful. The thing that really struck me was that outside of the Cambodian community, you’d be hardpressed to find even a few people who’ve heard of her.

Back in 2006, I wrote and directed a low-budget short film, also titled The Golden Voice, depicting Sothea’s struggle to survive at a Khmer Rouge work site. For an amateur production, the short film got a huge reaction, and that encouraged me to develop a full-length feature film. In 2007, I spent time in Cambodia doing research. I learned that Sothea had led an extraordinary life in her short time on this world. She is mostly remembered as a romantic singer, but she was also an actress, a mother, a rice farmer, and a paratrooper. And despite her horrible fate, Sothea’s voice lives on in the popular music of Cambodia to this day. I felt that there was a hopeful message in that. Piecing her life story together has been a challenging journey, but a beautiful journey. It’s an ongoing process. As recently as this year, new primary sources have surfaced, and I’ve been lucky enough to speak with them. But since the very beginning back in 2007, the central figure in all of my research has been Sothea’s surviving sister Ros Saboeun. Without her guidance and support, none of this would be possible. She is tremendously passionate about her sister’s legacy.

By 2008, I had a first draft of the script. Over the next decade, many producers were interested, but ultimately, no one would commit the financing. There was this general attitude that a subtitled film with an unknown cast and a tragic story wouldn’t be profitable. The Golden Voice being my long-term passion project, I decided to bring the story to life another way, where I wasn’t reliant upon gatekeepers saying “yes” or

“no.” The graphic novel medium has really come into its own as a well-respected art-form. It appeals to me because like cinema, it’s visual. But when you hear that someone is working on a project about Ros Serey Sothea, you immediately assume it’s a film or a documentary. But a graphic novel comes out of left field. It’s unexpected.

I spent the first half of 2019 trying to find the right artist for the book. It was a bit of a labyrinth, and I started down many dead-end paths. But finally, I connected with Kat Baumann, a comic book artist based out of Minnesota. After speaking with her, I could tell that she really “got” what the project was all about. She has a cinematic mind, and like Sothea’s singing, Kat has an ability to evoke real emotions in her illustrations. She is taking a story that’s already quite powerful, and she’s elevating it. People are universally blown away by her work. I think it’s really something to see these historic figures like Ros Serey Sothea, Sin Sisamouth, and Huoy Meas coming to life as comic book characters. We often associate comic books with superheroes, and these musicians are superheroes to so many people.

You can’t tell the story of Ros Serey Sothea without music. And so, the graphic novel is going to have a built-in soundtrack that’s synced to the story. Let’s say you’re reading a scene where Sothea is performing at a nightclub. You can stream the song she’s singing as you read. It’s really going to immerse you in the world. And I’m pleased to say that we’re working with the families of Ros Serey Sothea and Sin Sisamouth, making sure that they benefit from sales of the book and soundtrack.

As of August 2020, Kat and I have completed about one-third the 175-page book. We expect to finish sometime next year, in 2021. At that point, we’re going to seek a publisher and hopefully get this story out to a global audience. I think it’s so important that we remember Ros Serey Sothea and her fellow Khmer artists whose lives were cut short by terrible circumstances. There is much to learn from her story. I’m hopeful that people will be inspired by her.

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Links: www. thegoldenvoicemovie.com facebook.com/thegoldenvoicemovie instagram.com/thegoldenvoicemovie twitter.com/thegoldenvoicex

Real to Comic

GREGORY CAHILL is an Emmy winning producer for CBS entertainment talk show The Talk. His previous television credits include 24 starring Kiefer Sutherland, Mad Men starring Jon Hamm, and Medium starring Patricia Arquette. He served as assistant director on animated comedy Hell & Back starring Mila Kunis and Bob Odenkirk. His debut feature film Two Shadows took home the Audience Award from the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, while his short film The Golden Voice was selected for over a dozen international film festivals, winning several awards. Gregory is a board member of the Cambodia Town Film Festival, and a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

KAT BAUMANN is an illustrator from Southern Minnesota. She grew up in a family of musicians, and as a kid she spent most of her time singing show tunes in her room and drawing her favorite manga characters. After graduating with a BFA in Studio Art, she interned at Helioscope Studio in Portland and began working as a freelance cartoonist. Other works of hers include Ferdinand Magellan Sails Around the World (Black Sheep: Extraordinary Explorers), Blind Spot (from the anthology Death Saves Vol. 2), 20 Fists by F.D. White, and her 2017 autobio graphic novella Broken Plastic Horses. She now shares a studio in Mankato with her partner James and their geriatric tabby, Abner.