50 years after the Khmer Rouge seized power. Cambodian heritage and modernity, an exploration of music, dance and film

Fifty years after the Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia in April 1975, causing in less than four years, beyond millions of deaths, a destruction of society as a whole: social fabric, traditions, religious practices, education, vocabulary purification and arts, the country has had to rebuild itself. Numerous commemorative events, conferences and round tables are taking place in France on the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer section at Inalco, through screenings and roundtables, is looking at how Cambodians are reviving the arts by reconnecting with the ransacked past and then evolving, In this case, modern music, which welcomed and happily adapted modern rhythms from abroad while retaining its traditional styles or modernizing them, and cinema, which had enjoyed a golden age from independence in 1953 to 1975, as well as the revival of the Royal Khmer Ballet, which the Cambodian state was able to highlight as a flagship emblem of its culture.

Program

• 11:30am-1:30pm 
  Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll, a film by John PIROZZI
• 3:00-3:40 pm
  Magical Sangkran - the new golden age of Khmer music, a podcast by Pierre PROUTEAU and Fredrik ILDEFONSO-MOLIN
• 3.50-4pm
  Rien de plus grand que l'amour, a short film by Cyrus MOUSSAVI
• 4-6.05pm 
  Table-ronde Khmer music and cinema before/after the Khmer Rouge
  Moderator: THUON Monna (journalist, JRI).
  Speakers: SOK Visal (director, producer and founder of 802 Films Prod. and Klapyahandz), Pierre PROUTEAU (ethnomusicologist), SAPHAN LinDa (anthropologist, artist, and lead researcher for “Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”), SRENG Soksereyvahnea (PhD student), PHAL Sophanith (Inalco Khmer reader), KUOY Kolboth (Khmer student).
• 6.15 - 7.55 
  Karmalink, a film by Jake WACHTEL and SOK Visal (producer)