CamboFest is an international

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailand t ...

started in 2007 by

Camerado Camerado is a commercial film, video and multimedia production group that produces independent, multicultural-themed films, videos, and media events with a prosocial agenda. Camerado has been operating in Southeast Asia since 2005, and is one of t ...

. It is Cambodia's first internationally recognized film festival, and one of the first regular international movie events in Cambodia since the

Khmer Rouge The Khmer Rouge (; ; km, ខ្មែរក្រហម, ; ) is the name that was popularly given to members of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (CPK) and by extension to the regime through which the CPK ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. ...

era. The event, which is privately funded, showcases "international and local film and video makers in order to help revive a bona fide cinema industry and movie culture in Cambodia." The festival also serves to "promote awareness of IP (

Intellectual Property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

) practices in the Cambodian media and motion picture sector by securing public performance permissions for every movie we screen from copyright holders." The CamboFest's award is the 'Grabay Meas' (Golden Waterbuffalo) trophy. In its first two years, CamboFest was held in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. A dedicated, 'YouTube'-style online video portal was also utilized for the 2007 and 2008 editions as an online venue, but this component was abandoned later due to bandwidth and user access (

Digital Divide The digital divide is the unequal access to digital technology, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, and the internet. The digital divide creates a division and inequality around access to information and resources. In the Information Age in ...

) limitation

The third (2009) edition of CamboFest took place in the vintage Cambodian 'Royal' cinema hall, in Kampot, Cambodia, which was re-discovered by CamboFest staff who were scouting reputed vintage cinema houses in the area. Only a handful of older local Cambodians knew of the 'Royal', which had lain unused since 1989 after a brief post Khmer Rouge comebac

Despite the efforts of foreign movie pirates who attempted to stymie the 2009 event with a series of phony press releases and fake classified ads in the

Phnom Penh Post ''The Phnom Penh Post'' ( km, ភ្នំពេញប៉ុស្តិ៍, ) is a daily English-language newspaper published in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Founded in 1992 by publisher Michael Hayes and Kathleen O'Keefe, it is Cambodia's oldest En ...

, the 2009 historically significant 'Royal' edition of CamboFest was held as planned, from December 4–6, 2009, reviving the once-defunct Cambodian cinema house with a custom screen and power plant installatio

http://cameradomoviesandmedia.blogspot.com/2009/12/stills-video-and-other-content-from.html] Enduring a lack of institutional suppor

https://web.archive.org/web/20111020021400/http://cambodia.usembassy.gov

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/phnompenh] following the 3rd edition's challenges at the hands of expatriate pranksters and movie pirates, individual contributors stepped in to fill the gap instea

and CamboFest's fourth edition took place in Kampot, Cambodia on March 2–6, 2011. Dates were publicly listed as March 1–9 to render potential pranks and last minute Cambodian government 'variances' less problematic for the event. ''(*no notable interference was sustained at the 4th edition)'' Notable undertakings at the festival's 4th edition included the training of a local Cambodian youth group, the Youth Association for Human Resource Development (YAHRD

who set up and operated all equipment, changed screeners, greeted and informed guests, conducted outreach and publicity, and essentially ran the entire event

Their efforts culminated in the long-awaited official Cambodian premiere of Robert Flaherty's '

Nanook of the North ''Nanook of the North'' is a 1922 American silent film which combines elements of documentary and docudrama, at a time when the concept of separating films into documentary and drama did not yet exist. In the tradition of what would later be c ...

with live Khmer narration provided by the youth group. The film screened in Cambodia 88 years after its initial release with the permission of the Robert Flaherty Film Semina

In 2011, CamboFest commenced an international traveling festival edition, with its first stop in North America taking place in New York City courtesy of New Filmmakers

This marks the first time a Cambodian film festival will travel internationally, with further host venues around the world sought and welcomed on an ongoing basis.

References

External links