Spotlight on Cambodian Film Makers - Part 2

Film Screening
23 July 2022
Three smiling young people in a large body of water with a metal bucket.
Three smiling young people in a large body of water with a metal bucket.

A screening program centred around works that inspired Skin Shade Night Day.

When

23 July 2022

3:30pm to 5:30pm

Access

Curated by Allison Chhorn and presented as part of Skin Shade Night Day, this screening program centres around works that inspired her exhibition, spotlighting Cambodian film-makers whose works, like Chhorn, explore themes of memory, family and the legacy of cultural trauma.

The screening program is a continuation of Allison’s ongoing research project into Artists of Cambodian Diaspora.

“These Cambodian film-makers share a responsibility that resonates very closely to my own practice — responding to current ways of living that are in danger of being lost while also recognising their inevitable end by capturing their memory” – Allison Chhorn.

Feature Image: The Rice People (1994), film still. Courtesy Rithy Panh.

The Rice People

Director: Rithy Panh

Cambodia, 1994, 125 min

Khmer with English subtitles

Synopsis: A remarkable debut feature film from Cambodia’s most internationally celebrated film-maker Rithy Panh, The Rice People chronicles a few critical months in the life of a peasant farming family struggling to eke out a living in a deeply scarred, post-Khmer Rouge society. Adapted from a novel by Shahnon Ahmad, The Rice People was the first Cambodian film (co-produced with France and Germany) to be nominated for a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1994.

Rithy Panh (b. 1964, Phnom Penh) is an internationally acclaimed Cambodian film director and screenwriter, as well as the nation’s most recognised and respected film figure. A survivor of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), Rithy’s fiction films such as The Rice People (1994) and One Evening After the War (1998), as well as documentaries S–21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003), Duch, Master of the Forges of Hell (2011) and the extraordinary, Academy Award nominated The Missing Picture (2013) has seen him dedicate much of his career to investigating the campaign of genocide as well as the act of memorializing its victims.

Director

Rithy Panh
  • Two people with baskets in field.
  • Three smiling young people in a large body of water with a metal bucket.
  • Man works in a field, with heavy rain and wind.
Two people with baskets in field.
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The Rice People (1994), film still. Courtesy Rithy Panh.

Support

This project is supported by the South Australian Government through Arts South Australia. 

ACE tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka panpapanpalyarninthi (inparrinthi). Kaurna miyurna yaitya mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlu tampnthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the traditional Country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and pays respect to Elders past and present. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.

ACE tampinthi, ngadlu Kaurna yartangka panpapanpalyarninthi (inparrinthi). Kaurna miyurna yaitya mathanya Wama Tarntanyaku. Parnaku yailtya, parnaku tapa purruna, parnaku yarta ngadlu tampnthi. Yalaka Kaurna miyurna itu yailtya, tapa purruna, yarta kuma puru martinthi, puru warri-apinthi, puru tangka martulayinthi.

ACE respectfully acknowledges the traditional Country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains and pays respect to Elders past and present. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.