Tag - Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center

Surprising Trip to “Phnom Penh Evolution”

August 28, 2010

Walking about five minutes through a narrow street surrounded by old tall buildings and some small shops, we (Me and two other friends) started thinking that it wasn’t the place where our friend recommended us to go. Lots of eyes from some strange people standing on the sides of the road were staring on us like we were aliens from mysterious world and this made us more inconvenient in walking through.We felt more strange after we had arrived the spot because everything around us were not mentioned in our friend’s description and even the stairs connected from one floor to another were wet so that we had to be careful as we walked to the upper floors.

For me, it is hard to imagine that a lot of wonderful photos were showed in a small room in the second floor of an anarchy building, but it did. Actually, in a new painted room on that floor, there was 10 people inside already and there was a screening of some photos that will be showed in the upcoming photography exhibition at Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center. We are lucky to have chance watching the photos before someone else and learning some techniques of shooting photos from those photographers.

“Phnom Penh Evolution” is the photography exhibition on the ongoing transformation of Phnom Penh. All photos were shot by Cambodian photographers who have strong interest in social changing though some of them don’t have a modern camera to shoot it.

Below are the summaries of what each person have done (Taken from a poster given during the screening this afternoon):

WALKING ON GOLDEN LAND, by: TITH Narith

… In 1979, Borei Kela was the former place where sportsmen lived; it was where people came to stay and build small huts that were affordable to live in. they started their living by growing vegetables and feeling fish, and hence, buildings were built in accordance with the development of the country…

DOUBLE CITY, by: PRUM Seila

… In the early 2000s, Phnom Penh became a booming city where the price of property sky rocketed. Hundreds of flats were built, and as a result, the city dwellers had to adjust to a new lifestyle. Now, Phnom Penh has become a city within an old one…

WRAPPED FUTURE, by: LIM Sokchanlina

… The memory of one particular place becomes surrounded by developing areas marked by the boards. A few persons know, but most of the people do not know exactly what will happen here. For myself, I am wondering too. Will there be a skyscraper? A park? Or a private area? Worry is mix with appreciation of what will happen to that particular area…

ALIGNED CUTS, by: PHA Lina

… Phnom Penh is the heart of Cambodia. This city became a paradise for me since I saw it for the first time, 18 years ago. I was choosing the subject concern “Phnom Penh’s street” so that I could focus on taking photos of the city’s streets…

The Photo Exhibition on Phnom Penh Evolution will open on Thursday, September 2nd 2010, at 6:30pm at Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center

For Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center website Click Here

For more information about the exhibition Click Here

by: Dara Saoyuth

28/08/2010

Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre

June 16, 2010

Dara Saoyuth

Feature Story, LIFT

Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center / Photo source: Internet

As a documentary filmmaker in the 1990s, Rithy Panh realized the utter lack of audiovisual resources in Cambodia and decided to start an organization to collect as much of the Kingdom’s audiovisual heritage as possible.

Rithy Panh’s dream of gathering the resources convinced Ieu Pannakar, who was the head of the Department of Cinema within the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts at that time, to jump on board. The two men established the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in December 2006 with the support of the Ministry of Culture and many other institutions.

“Bophana was the name of a young woman detained in S-21 during the Pol Pot Regime,” said Chum Noi, public relations officer for Bophana.

“The center was given the name Bophana to bear witness to the dignity and courage of this woman.”

Aiming to preserve and present the remaining pictures, movies and songs from the last 150 years of Cambodia’s history, Bophana has around 30 staff members who have helped collect and protect more than 2,000 documents produced by Cambodians and foreigners.

The center improves the quality of the documents, digitizes them and adds them to its expansive computer database, which is growing bigger by the week.

The overriding purpose of the collection is to provide free access to Cambodians and foreigners who wish to explore the audiovisual memory of Cambodia and learn more about the country’s past glory and terror.

“All the documents can be viewed freely in three main languages: Khmer, English and French. Therefore, people can search for their desired document easily,” said Sim Sok Thida, a research analyst at the Center.

“Bophana has been working collaboratively with other audiovisual archive centers in America, Europe and Asia to gather the remaining Cambodian documents from those countries and get authorization from the owners to present and provide people access to those files,” said Gaetan Crespel, the archive manager at Bophana Center.

He added that the center has also been cooperating with the Cambodian Film Commission in training Cambodian people in film and audio-related technical work to ensure that they are capable of taking care of documents, as well as improving their own ability to produce photos, film and audio files that will ensure that people do not forget what is happening today.

“I often visit the center when I am free from my studies since I can find so many important documents that aren’t available anywhere else,” said Nem Lorn, a student from Human Resource University.

“I can gain priceless knowledge, especially in art, civilization and history. I hope more Cambodian youth spend time here to explore their past.

“I am sure that the center is going to be here for the next 10 or 20 years to serve the public,” said Crespel.

“We still have many more archives that haven’t been digitized and shown to the public yet.”

Written by: Dara Saoyuth and Lang Mesa

This article was published on Lift, Issue 23, June 16, 2010