"Cambodia is a young country, and we must give prospects to the youth. The past tells us what may happen tomorrow; and images are here to make us think and feed us; it is a great strength to move forward. Education helps us analyze the images and master the techniques; creation enables us to speak up but also express what we see and how we feel."
— Rithy Panh, co-founder of the Bophana Center.
The Bophana Center acquires film, television, photography and sound archives on Cambodia from all around the world and gives free public access to this precious heritage. For Cambodians, it opens the door to large swathes of memory. Since it opened on December 4, 2006, over 240,000 people have (re)discovered these documents in Phnom Penh and throughout the country. For teachers, students, researchers or journalists, it is an exceptional documentary database. Currently, nearly 700 hours of video are available, including: the first movies of the Lumière brothers in the late nineteenth century; recent fictions by Cambodian directors; TV coverage; nonprofit movies; documentaries; Norodom Sihanouk’s movies; etc. Meanwhile, hundreds of archives are being organized and indexed.
From the very beginning, the Bophana Center’s main objective was to offer young Cambodians vocational training as well as professional support over the long run. Thus, archivists, film and audiovisual technicians as well as young filmmakers have been trained at the Bophana Center. The center is now opening up to multimedia: it launched pilots and now develops new multimedia training curriculum. While being a discussion forum for the artists, the Bophana Center also supports art creation in all forms and produces documentaries and fictions about Cambodia, which are the archives of tomorrow. “Red Wedding” in particular stood out in major festivals, including Sundance and IDFA. Film and broadcasting productions have taken an increasing part in our activity, which enables us to become more financially independent and echoes our ambition to strengthen the audiovisual sector in Cambodia.
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