Documentary “Memory & Images: a Cambodian Experience” (Cambodia, France)
A film by Franco Lolli Gomez.
The Technicolor Foundation which acts for the preservation and the promotion of film and audiovisual heritage, produced a documentary for telling the unique experience of Bophana center, which it’s been supported by the Foundation since its beginning.
The starting point of the film “Memory and Images: a Cambodian Experience” was to highlight the importance of image as key part of memory and to entrust this project to a young filmmaker in aim at drawing his attention to this search of memory through a newly gathered heritage.
This project is part of the international actions of Technicolor Foundation for sensitizing the government authorities as well as the film community and young generations about the absolute necessity of safeguarding film and audiovisual heritage. “A country without a memory is fragile, a memory without images is incomplete” says Séverine Wemaere, Managing Director of Technicolor Foundation for Film & TV Heritage.
The film concept
“Explaining the initiatives related to the safeguard of film and audiovisual archives are not an easy task and often the stakes are not well understood by the audience whatever public it can be. The approach of this film was to highlight the importance of image as key part of memory. We decided to show the extreme position of Cambodia where the archives were either destroyed or uncollected and to tell that a country without a memory is fragile, a memory without images is incomplete” explains Séverine Wemaere, Managing Director of Technicolor Foundation for Film & TV Heritage.
“The second motivation behind such a documentary was to entrust this project to a young filmmaker in aim at drawing his attention to this search of memory through a newly gathered heritage. This is how this project saw the light of the day, thanks to the involvement of the national film school (La fémis, France), a foundation acting in the field of film preservation, with the support of a Cambodian production company (Bophana Production) and image materials from Ina (National Audiovisual Institute, France) .”
Franco Lolli Gomez, the filmmaker
Franco Lolli was born in 1983 in Bogotá, Colombia, where he spent the first 18 years of his life. After high school, he went to France to continue his studies in Montpellier and then at La Sorbonne in Paris, before being admitted at the French film school La fémis. He graduated with honors from it in 2007. He has directed several short fiction films as well as two documentaries. His last film "Como Todo El Mundo", shot in Bogotá, has been selected and has won prizes in several international film festivals.
Screenings of the film :
§ « Film Heritage Educational Program » au Film & Television Institute of India (FTII) à Pune, Inde (du 17 au 20 mars 2008)
§ 64e Congrès annuel de la FIAF (Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film) à la Cinémathèque française, Paris (du 17 au 26 avril 2008)
§ 2e Festival du Film Documentaire DOCKANEMA à Maputo, Mozambique (du 12 au 21 septembre 2008)
§ Quinzaine Cambodgienne à Orléans (du 4 au 18 avril 2009)
Technical information:
Support: DVCam ; color
Duration : 26’
Original version in French and Khmer with French subtitles; international version with English subtitles
The documentary “Memory and Images: a Cambodian Experience” is a coproduction Technicolor Foundation for Film & TV Heritage, Bophana Production, La fémis and Ina.
© Fondation Technicolor pour le Patrimoine Cinéma et Télévision, Bophana Production, La femis, Ina 2007