War Crimes Studies Center

Cambodia Outreach Program

Watching Justice in Motion: Trial films at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia

The WCSC and East-West Center Initiative (AIJI), have developed an outreach program for the Khmer Rouge trials that involves the production of a film series entitled "Time for Justice." The films, produced by Khmer Mekong Films in Phnom Penh, are disseminated through regular television broadcast on the largest Cambodian TV network and through radio and community meetings. These films have been funded by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office through the British Embassy in Phnom Penh and with the support of the local office of the Open Society Justice Initiative. In the 18 months leading up to the first trial at the ECCC (which began March 30, 2009) we produced 5 "pretrial" films to educate the Cambodian public as to the structure and mission of the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (ECCC). These films have been broadc a s t r epe a t edl y on Cambodian national television (by CTN) and shown at community meetings in 20 provinces by a network of NGOs we organized. The Tribunal itself has also made extensive use of these films. As of March of 2009, the first film had aired six times on two different television networks within Cambodia (CTN and TVK) , as well as once internationally for the Cambodian diaspora in Australia, France and America (on CTN International). The second film had aired eight times within Cambodia (CTN and TVK) and twice internationally (CTN International).

Click below to watch a short clip summary of the first two films on the ECCC:

With the beginning of the Tribunal's first trial in March 2009 we entered the second, and main, phase of the film project. We are currently producing a half-hour minute film each week for weekly broadcast on CTN through a show we produce, called "Time for Justice: Duch on Trial". The films use a talk show format, with two well known Cambodian journalists as moderators. The film includes 12-15 minutes of video clips from the previous week's trial sessions and discussion by the moderators that anticipates questions ordinary Cambodians are likely to raise. "Duch on Trial" is broadcast on Monday at 1:15 pm, CTN's second peak time slot with an estimated viewing audience of 1.5-2.5 million. CTN re-broadcasts the show on Tuesday afternoon. DVDs of the films are made available at no charge to NGOs, embassies, educational institutions, the ECCC, and other interested parties. They are also uploaded every Monday morning in a sub-titled version at the East-West Center website (www.eastwestcenter.org) with links to various national and international human rights NGOs and educational institutions.

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