Where is the lost production equipment?

[Tim Francis]

Before the coming of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia had a film industry. There were technicians, grip and lighting equipment and other facilities. By the time Pol Pot had been removed from power, 90% of the cinema technicians were dead. It's a loss which continues to adversely affect the country's film making capacity to this day.

What is forgotten is the equipment left behind. Somewhere in this country, are their cameras, their lights and lighting support equipment, assorted grip equipment such as dolly and track. Some found its way into the emergent production companies of the 80's and 90's. Many of those start-up enterprises subsequently failed.

The questions this all raised is an intriguing one: Where is this lost equipment? Is any of it serviceable?

Some grip and lighting stands I suspect, considering the enthusiasm for metal recycling in Cambodia, are now liberally spread around the world in the form of car fenders. Others are hidden away in storage, gathering dust and long on the way to being museum exhibits, unrestorable through neglect or environmental damage.

But some will be the surviving relatives of the original technicians. That equipment I am especially interested in. For some of it can be made serviceable, especially cameras, lenses, camera grip and lighting rigs. Intuition suggests these people have no idea what to do with that equipment. Yet they and the equipment could be a vital link in the rebuilding of the country's film industry. At the present time they have no idea how to recommission this equipment, how they could operate a facilities or rental service.

The question for Film Cambodia is how to approach this problem. Running a press publicity campaign to relocate the equipment is the easy past. What to do with the equipment is the conundrum: There are few if any camera mechanics in the country. Lights are often serviceable for years, providing the critical electrical maintenance is completed, cables, insulators and lamp holders are routinely replaced. Yet the Cambodian professionals qualified to do this restoration work do not exist.

So the question to the film professionals working in Cambodia, is what do we do to help those with that equipment, get it back into circulation? Is there a way of helping the surviving generations of the lost technicians follow in their ancestors footsteps.

Suggestions welcomed. This problem has perplexed me as to the best approach.

TJF