Collection
Bophana Center Archive
The Bophana Center Archive is the collection of Cambodian film, radio, photography and music held by the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh.[1] The center preserves the material and opens it to visitors.[1]
History
The filmmaker Rithy Panh and Ieu Pannakar founded the Bophana Center in Phnom Penh in late 2006, and it opened on December 4 of that year.[2] From the start it joined archival preservation with film production and training for Cambodian filmmakers.[2]
Overview
The archive brings together Cambodian material from the French National Audiovisual Institute, the UNICEF archive, Rithy Panh's own archive and the Cambodian Film Commission, which recovered Khmer Rouge propaganda films from 1979 onward. Its subjects run from Cambodian cinema and the newsreels of the 1960s to radio, classical dance, religion and tradition, Cambodian women, Phnom Penh and daily life.[1]
Material coverage
The center holds 142 collections. As of June 2020 these included 2,317 videos, 1,436 audio recordings and 216 photographic series of 20 to 100 photographs each. The formats range from film, newsreel and radio to audio tape, vinyl records, photographs, books and interview footage.[1]
One preservation project digitized 300 hours of Cambodian audiovisual material into a public database, among it rare footage of Cambodia from 1990, an interview with a senior Khmer Rouge officer and UNICEF documentaries from the 1990s.[3] Archivists describe and digitize each item and seek support to restore films that need conservation. Before release, material may be translated into Khmer, English and French, or dubbed in Khmer.[3]
Catalog and access
Individual items are described in the center's Archives Online catalog, which names contributing collections such as the Thonevath Pou collection. The archives can be viewed at the center during its opening hours.[1][4]