It was in the early 90s that filmmaker Rithy Panh, while producing his first documentaries in Cambodia, realised how critical was the condition of the audiovisual heritage of the country. After decades of wars, coups d’état and genocidal madness, the few archives that had been spared seemed to be waiting for time, tropical heat and dust to complete the work of effacing them. One more decade or two and the audiovisual memory of Cambodia would have been reduced to zero, an objective of the Khmer Rouge period that all Cambodians are now trying to surmount.

The concerns of Rithy Panh echoed those of the film-maker Ieu Pannakar, who was then responsible for the Department of Cinema and Cultural Diffusion within the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia. The two men dreamt about creating a locale for memory and creation where the audiovisual heritage would recover a sense and a renewed dynamism.

The project to establish an Audiovisual Resource Centre emerged in today’s more favourable atmosphere. It is now recognised that historical archives and culture play a key role in the expression of a nation’s identity and in the constitution of its heritage.

The Cambodian authorities quickly supported the principle and facilitated finding a locale for the Centre. Then collaborations undertaken from the French side (bilateral co-operation, technical and financial support, access to the collections of the major archival centres) created an effective level of support. Within several months the project took shape and promised to endow Cambodia with an institution which would gather and lend speech to those who had remained silent for too long.

By choosing the name Bophana, the Centre hopes to bear witness to the message of dignity and courage exemplified by this young women during her S21 Centre detention. The project of collecting the Cambodian audiovisual heritage is to create an access to memory, to remember, to transmit a history and a culture to the future generations and thus to initiate a better future.

The Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre has adopted several missions, namely collecting the images and sounds of the Cambodian memory and making them available to a wide public, and training Cambodians in the audiovisual professions by welcoming foreign film productions and by its own artistic projects. The first pole of its activity - protecting the national audiovisual heritage - was already initiated in 2005, while the two other poles of its activity are currently being set up, and financing and partnerships are now being sought.

Since the Cambodian memory of the period before the war years was largely destroyed, a major effort was undertaken to collect and organise, bit by bit, this precious heritage. Launched in France, it has permitted recovering documents as diverse as the films by the Lumière brothers about Cambodia at the very beginning of the cinema, the water festival on the Mekong in the 50s, and Khmer Rouge propaganda films and radio broadcasts. The organisers have the ambition of collecting this material from international sources. The Bophana Centre has also participated in the protection of as much of the Cambodian heritage as had survived.

All the documents are accessible to the public in the form of a trilingual (French, English Khmer) database which brings these archives to life so that they can be accessed by different segments of the public and can stimulate reflection and debate.

The Audiovisual Resource Centre also expects to create a directorate of productions in order to film its own subjects and to assist foreign filmmaking. By offering a variety of quality services from administration to the rental of cinema equipment and performance of certain services after the completion of the filming, and a seed-bed of skills, the administration fulfils a need recognised by the professionals in the industry.

Closely linked to the training pole of the Centre’s activity, film production and assisting foreign film producers will provide practical experience for the young graduates of the training programmes. The other objective is to find sources of revenue for the Centre’s activities.

The Centre’s founders are the French Association d’aide au développement de l’audiovisuel au Cambodge (AADAC) and the Cambodian Association pour la recherche, la production et l’archivage des documents audiovisuals (ARPAA). The object is for the French association to gradually transfer the administration of the project to the Cambodian association, thus effectuating a true transfer of responsibilities.