Showing now: The Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

The Bophana Centre is an audiovisual archive, a training centre and a venue for free film screenings in the centre of Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia. The centre was founded in 2006 by two Cambodian film-makers, Rithy Panh and Pannakar Ieu.2 In the same year, the United Nations–supported Khmer Rouge Tribunal – formally the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) – was also established in Phnom Penh. Although vastly different initiatives, the organisation and tribunal share a concern to work towards some form of justice for victims of Khmer Rouge crimes and to foster dialogue about how to constitute a better present and future in light of this and other historical conflicts in the country. This chapter is based in fieldwork conducted in and around the ECCC between late 2011 and early 2017. It introduces the work of the Bophana Centre as a unique Cambodian organisation and critically explores its relationship to the ECCC in the wider context of what is generally termed Cambodian civil society. It argues that the practices fostered at Bophana are ontologically and epistemologically at variance with transitional justice theory and practice. The creative labour of Bophana’s filmand app-makers is cultural, material and relational. These kinds of practices have seen Bophana play a key role in the outreach and reparation activities of the ECCC, and in turn has changed the nature of these activities. Ten years after its inception, Bophana is a relatively large and well-organised NGO, with both international and Cambodian-based donors and upwards of 25 paid staff. Its exhibitions, public events and weekly film screenings are well-attended. The centre’s Hanuman audiovisual archive (of film and audio material produced in or about Cambodia) is an excellent resource for students and researchers, being well-organised, centrally located in Phnom Penh and free to access. Conferences hosted by the centre also aim wide – to ‘better understand Cambodian history, its culture, architecture, traditions [and] current challenges [as well as] image analysis and film-making’ (Bophana 2016).