Filmmaking Students Allege Sexual Harassment by Bophana Center Trainers
Keat Soriththeavy
| Fri Nov 4, 2022 2:56 pm

Female filmmaking trainees are speaking out about alleged sexual harassment at a Bophana Center training program — including inappropriate conversations on field trips and touching they felt uncomfortable with — saying they don’t want it to keep happening to other women.

Three recent trainees spoke of their experiences at nearly yearlong documentary-filmmaking programs at the center. Two core trainers had engaged in behavior that made the women in their 20s uncomfortable, the trainees said.

The trainees said they put up with discomfort for the duration of their training in part because they were under contracts that paid them a $5 daily allowance and reimbursement for gasoline — which the center had warned they would need to pay back if they quit.

One trainee said she did not think the organization would take a complaint seriously: She had previously asked the organization about a concerning social media comment and was told to focus on studying.

Bophana Center’s director and the two trainers initially responded to the allegations via interviews at the center on Wednesday. The director said the center had been notified of some of the allegations in late October through a donor. The center took the issue of sexual harassment seriously and was shocked by the accusations, he said. The two trainers would be moved to other, non-public-facing tasks pending further investigations, he said.

He added that some physical contact was a part of guiding trainees to handle camera and sound equipment. Trainees had been warned of this aspect, and no staff member had seen any unprofessional touching happening at the center, he said, though he added that the organization would nevertheless look for ways to mitigate physical contact between opposite genders.

Later, the center sent VOD an email asking the article to be withheld from publication pending further investigations. It still only knew the details of allegations “in the vaguest of terms” and “[a]ny article published about this now might also compromise the investigation, as well as lead you to publish information that amounts to defamation,” it said.

The Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center is a leading film institution in the country, maintaining historical film archives and providing training funded by international organizations.

The period of the alleged harassment told by the three trainees stretches from the past couple of years through this September.

The three trainees variously said they were made to feel some of the touching or sexual suggestions were normal because it was done in the open or presented as jokes. They often felt uncertain whether their discomfort was legitimate and whether the trainers’ actions should be called out as sexual harassment. But several of the trainees talked about experiences of harassment among each other, they said.

A gender advocate in Cambodia pointed out that teachers have power over their students, which can lead to feelings of uncertainty, and what mattered was whether the women felt the actions were unwelcome. Overseas research has also found that women find it hard to come forward especially when the harassers are in positions of power, and even when they do they routinely downplay or deny the gravity of the situation.

The trainees said they did not want those harassers’ names made public at this time. One said she was hoping that the center’s disciplinary action would be enough to change their behavior. Another said she was afraid of facing one of the trainers in the future.

One of the three trainees initially agreed to be named, saying she wanted the accusations taken seriously and prevented in the future. But on Friday she said she had since seen apology messages from Bophana Center in group chats and no longer wanted the center to know she was among those speaking out.

She said she regretted joining her training course, which was this year supported by BBC Media Action, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

Her two main trainers often pinched her stomach and thighs during classes and petted her head while working on computers.
In full: https://vodenglish.news/filmmaking-stud ... -trainers/

Wikimedia Pauses Bophana Center Program Amid Sexual Harassment Investigation
2 min read
Keat Soriththeavy
| Thu Dec 8, 2022 3:35 pm
A film archival project for indigenous youth at Bophana Center has been put on hold as the center commissions a third-party investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at the center, the project’s funder said.

Bophana Center last month fired two trainers following an internal investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at a separate documentary filmmaking training program at the center.

The center’s donors said a third-party investigation was now underway into the sexual harassment allegations.

The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that operates Wikipedia, said last week that its Bophana Center program, “Build Capacity for Indigenous Youth and Create Indigenous Audiovisual Archives Using Wiki Tools in Cambodia,” was paused in light of the allegations.

The first phase of the foundation’s grant to the center ran from July 2021 to June this year, and it was renewed through December before being suspended, it said.

“The Wikimedia Foundation does not tolerate harassment of any kind and takes any allegations of this nature extremely seriously,” it said, adding that it was awaiting further information from the independent, third-party investigation.

Unesco, whose logo is on the indigenous film archive project and which hosts information about it on its website, referred questions to Wikimedia.

“I would like to inform you that the filming project which you are referring to was not funded by UNESCO rather by Wikimedia and you can be in touch with Wikimeda,” said Unesco Cambodia officer Ty Samphors Vicheka in an email.

The officer did not reply when asked what Unesco’s involvement was.
https://vodenglish.news/wikimedia-pause ... stigation/