Cambodian Cinema: Rising from the Ashes

September 24–October 6, 2023

This series focuses on the especially challenging situation of film preservation in Cambodia, a country whose cultural heritage was ravaged by the Pol Pot regime of genocide and destruction in the 1970s. Thanks to the efforts of filmmaker Rithy Panh, who cofounded the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in 2005, there is a sense of renewal and important work being done by archivists, industry professionals, and young filmmakers documenting Cambodian life today and telling individuals’ stories.

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White Building
Golden Slumbers, Courtesy of Icarus Films
Bophana: Shadows and Lights
Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy

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Past
Films
Past
Events

Past Films

Cambodia: Developing the Next Generation of Filmmakers
- Friday, October 6 3:30 PM
A program of short films generated by training initiatives at the Bophana Center as well as a discussion of the institution's developmental role in fostering a new generation of Cambodian filmmakers. Executive Director Sopheap Chea is in conversation with Stephen Gong from the Center for Asian American Media.

Sopheap Chea and Stephen Gong in Conversation
Golden Slumbers
- Thursday, October 5 7 PM
Davy Chou
Cambodia, France, 2011
Between the early 1960s and 1975, Cambodia was home to a vibrant film industry that produced more than four hundred features. When the Khmer Rouge seized control of the country, it halted production, demolishing the industry along with most of the rest of the country’s cultural life. Golden Slumbers resurrects this cinema’s heyday by using soundtracks, advertisements, posters, and lobby cards to re-create memories of a golden era.

Introduced by Sopheap Chea
White Building
- Sunday, September 24 5 PM
- Saturday, September 30 5 PM
Kavich Neang
Cambodia, 2021
Bay Area Premiere!

Twentyish Samnang dreams of fame as a dancer and singer, yet the realities of day-to-day life constantly thwart his hopes for the future, specifically the looming destruction of the apartment complex where he and his family live. “White Building soars along on quiet moments thanks to Douglas Seok’s stunning cinematography” (Pat Padua, Spectrum Culture).
Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy
- Saturday, September 30 3:30 PM
Rithy Panh
France, Cambodia, 1996
Rithy Panh’s sensitive attention to detail and skilled direction make Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy a film of incredible power. His inquiry into the lives and deaths of Hout Bophana and Ly Sitha, a married couple who were casualties of the Pol Pot regime, personalizes the horror.

Cambodian Cinema: Rising from the Ashes

September 24–October 6, 2023

“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, cofounder of the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center

BAMPFA and UC Berkeley’s South and Southeast Asian Studies Department have formed a new partnership with the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Cambodia. In August we hosted three archivists from Cambodia for a summer residency at the film archive, and looking ahead to January 2024, several members of BAMPFA’s staff will visit their institution in Phnom Penh. In the interim, we welcome Sopheap Chea, the executive director of the Bophana Center, who will share a firsthand report on the important work that is being done to reclaim Cambodian film heritage and train young filmmakers throughout the country. The film program on October 6 showcases some of those recent films.

Also selected for this spotlight series is Kavich Neang’s White Building, an impressive feature debut that has received praise for its lead actor, Piseth Chhun, and exceptional cinematography. The film addresses the housing situation in Phnom Penh, in one of the city’s infamous tenement buildings. Davy Chou’s Golden Slumbers is a lyrical investigation of the lost cinematic heritage of Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge destroyed all the movies made between 1960 and 1975. Rithy Panh’s Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy, an early and seminal work, tells the story of a young couple who were both arrested, tortured, and executed by the Pol Pot regime. Panh fittingly named the Bophana Center after the young female victim, who died in her mid-twenties but whose memory now lights the way for future generations.

—Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator

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Copresenter: Center for Southeast Asia Studies, UC Berkeley

Thanks to the Henry Luce Foundation; Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center; and Professor Penny Edwards, South and Southeast Asian Studies Department, UC Berkeley.

Cambodian Cinema: Rising from the Ashes

September 24–October 6, 2023

Past Films

Cambodia: Developing the Next Generation of Filmmakers

Golden Slumbers

White Building

Bophana: A Cambodian Tragedy