What's On: Bophana NEWSLETTER JUNE

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Bophana NEWSLETTER JUNE - JULY 2007

On May 25, 2007, the Bophana Audiovisual Resource
Center in cooperation with the Better Factories Cambodia
program of the International Labor Office (ILO), launched
a new photo exhibition "People behind the products – Garment
workers of Cambodia" at a ceremony presided over by His Exc. Cham
Prasidh, Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce.

The exhibition ran until June 15. Its purpose was to show the public what
the workaday world of textile factory workers is all about. Australian
photographer Livingston Armytage used this medium to put a human face
on textile production in this country.

Meanwhile, the ANZ Royal Bank provided support to the Bophana Center
to help it put on the full series of episodes of "At the Factory Gates",
produced under the Better Factories Cambodia program. All photographs
as well as entire series will soon be available for consultation in the
Center's database.

W H E R E A R E W E ?
􀀟 Training in the audiovisual trades is moving ahead. Two French
instructors are providing daily tutoring for four young Cambodian technicians
at the Bophana Center. This has helped them learn about film shooting,
photography, sound pick up, searching, on location filming, editing, and
so on. A synergy was established among the trades, so much so that a
genuine production unit has come into being. The Bophana Center's
audiovisual team is now ready to respond to requests for quality institutional
film productions, news stories and documentaries.

􀀟 The Bophana Center is doing its first documentary on Khmer
cuisine. After five days of filming in Ta Kong village in Kompong Cham
province, the audiovisual team is preparing a 26-minute documentary to
provide a social and historical reading of Cambodian cuisine: recipes
handed down from generation to generation, choices of ingredients and
traditional utensils. The viewer is introduced to the history of dishes and
memories of forgotten flavors while at the same time getting acquainted
with the life of a local family and its background.

􀀟 From July 12 to October 12, the Bophana Center will be putting
on an exhibition by painter Vann Nath. He uses his canvasses to
depict what happened to him in the early months of 1978, from the time
he was arrested by the Khmer Rouge in Battambang until he was
transferred to the Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh. As an extra, the
exhibition is featuring the painter's memories that were recorded in the
Center's sound studio. In them, the painter comments about his pictures,
thus sharing the process of creating the images that provide both a
memory and tangible evidence of resistance against barbarity.

􀀟 While the Vann Nath painting exhibition is going on, several
screenings are planned, including documentaries and reports on the
Khmer Rouge era taken from the Hanuman database. They will be put on
during July and August in the Paris Eden Cinema Room of the Bophana
Center.

Focus
Getting the Cambodian heritage
message out to the younger generation

Every afternoon the Bophana Center research analyst team
welcomes the public in the consultation area. Mornings are
devoted to planning educational tours for school groups. About
twice a week the Center hosts Cambodian pupils and students in
small groups of 20 as arranged with educational establishments
in Cambodia. Since the Center opened in December 2006,
nearly 500 young people have come in to see the facility.

Raising awareness about the importance of
archive preservation

Depending on the time available, the Center's research analysts
personalize the tour program. Visitors are usually invited to start
with a tour of the current exhibition. For most of these young
people, it's the first time they have ever seen an exhibition. They
learn to take a close look at the pictures or paintings on display
and think about them, reading the captions in order to find
answers to what they may be wondering about. The group then
moves into the projection room for a presentation about the
Center, the Hanuman database and work being done on
archives (collecting, digitizing and indexing). A number of short
documents taken from the database are then put on screen,
depending on what the audience is interested in: the Angkor
temples, fishing, Apsara dancers and the like.
Special showings of feature-length films can also be put on if
requested in advance.

Making the Center's collections accessible
The group is then taken upstairs to the consultation area. Two
students sitting at each station can do their own searches and
view the documents of their choice. Even the youngest visitors
do very well with the computers, even if they are only beginners.
Research analysts are on hand to offer assistance and answer
more technical questions from the older members of the
audience.

The goal is to give Cambodian youth a taste for discovering their
culture and history. We want them to come back again and again
to look at the archives available in the Center. Some of them do
just that, and that's something we're very happy about!

If you would like to support our efforts, if you hold or know of the
existence of documents (video, audio, or photo) concerning not
only the political history of Cambodia, but also the culture,
environment, daily life, health, sport, or religion, please do not
hesitate to contact our team in Phnom Penh or Paris.

IN CAMBODIA
Tel : +855 (0) 92 685 301
Email : arpaa@bophana.org
www.bophana.org

IN FRANCE
Tel : +33 (0) 6 09 56 62 52
Email : aadac@bophana.org
www.bophana.org

64 street 200, Phnom Penh

as PDF File:

Bophana Newsletter-June-July