The Director

Roland Joffé

English-French film director, this influenced his choices to maintain the portrayal of the U.S. government. This lead the U.S. government to not back the film resulting in the use of Thai and British weapons and vehicles. 

He used his connection with the UK by using a British arms company to supply the film's weapons.

Director of the killing fields

 Born: November 17, 1945, London

Spouse: Jane Lapotaire

Children: Rowan Joffe, Nathalie Lunghi

Education: University of Manchester, Carmel College

The Killing Fields- Roland’s first film as a director.

                            Earned Joffe an Oscar nomination for Best Director in 1984.
                            
                         

                            

“I think what affected the style of the shooting was the story, and I think also the fact that it is finally about human beings, and that I wanted it to be a film about consequences, and I think that’s what David wanted and I’m sure that’s what Syd wanted.  And I hope very much that it will be about the consequences for everybody of what a war is the same way that it’s for everybody about the consequences of the actions of one person in relation to another really.  So that when we shot it, when we had tackled scenes, what I tried to do is shoot them in such a way that you are aware that these are human beings involved. That if there is an explosion the explosion isn’t the major thing in the scene I hope, I hope the major thing in the scene is what the consequences of that act is.”

-Documentary

 Joffe is a board member of Operation USA, a non profit humanitarian organization dedicated to helping communities alleviate the effects of disaster, disease, and endemic poverty throughout the world by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction, humanitarian aid and development aid. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087553/combinedAfter ‘The Killing Fields,’ a Director Reflects

Mr. Joffe believes the next crop of Cambodian stories are not necessarily his, or any other Westerners, to tell.
“The stories will be the same, but expressed in a Cambodian way. How do the sexes relate to each other, what’s a good human being? How are we to live? I think these are all great questions, but they must be told by Cambodians.”

-Cambodia Daily


“Friendship fascinates me—I think it’s a very beautiful and misunderstood thing,” he said.
Subsequent films have failed to match the acclaim of his first two, but that has not fazed Mr. Joffe.

-Cambodia Daily


“I didn’t want to be a director who was known for doing X or Y,” he said. “I didn’t think I wanted to make a career out of being a director; I wanted to make a career out of living and learning.”
Still, he said, he cannot help but be moved by the fact that “The Killing Fields” continues to have an impact to this day, and said it is “very touching” when people tell him so.

-Cambodia Daily

Overall, the director did a good job of being responsible with the framing of the movie. One thing that could definitely have been more accurate was the scene with the passport, discussed in "Time Stamps," since that was almost entirely fabricated. He could also have included something about when Dith Pran became a speaker for the Vietnamese government over a village. However, the movie as a whole was close to history factually, and we did not feel that the director changed it significantly.

Film director Roland Joffe discusses ‘The Killing Fields’ in Phnom Penh. (Lauren Crothers/The Cambodia Daily)


http://lightmotive.com/About_history_lo.html