It has been three years we at Sunflower Film Organization (SFO), have shifted our focus group of beneficiaries to indigenous youth. My personal favorite was the last community in Ngorn commune, Sandan district, Kampong Thom province: K’bet-Chonghor Knaa. Although our original project, “Let’s Document Cambodia“, ended its implementation in 2022, I personally feel such communities need more/amplified voices to raise their local concerns to a wider audience. That was why back in 2023, I returned there with a dedicated workshop on storyboarding and recently, on investigation, with Sunflower Film Alliance graduates.
Last April, with Tactical Tech‘s support, saw six of our indigenous youth practice their investigative skills through two newest documentaries. I’m here sharing how that last experience has shaped me and our video trainer, in three different angles!
- More Distance, More Connection
As much as we allowed our indigenous fellows practiced their skill set across the last Khmer New Year’s period, I needed to follow up closely on their progress. The point is, committed participants are also actively engaged in other community tasks! My takeaway here is the more distant we grow, the more connected we stay, of course, considerate manners.
2. Flexibility = Resourcefulness
As our video trainer and I headed to the field with our participants with limited resources “on purpose”, we discovered what they taught in return. While in urban or sophisticated settings, we use a boom to operate our sound recording, our trainee would simply use a firm twig with our microphone on its edge, as seen below! Wasn’t that resourceful enough for their technical limitations?
3. Physical Boundaries and Emotional Tolerance
As reflected in my previous post on working with indigenous communities, this time around, I had to “relearn” my tolerance skill, when it comes to their “professional” updates. That was why our rule of thumb was to support them as much as we could while on set and fixed it on our end at our best. Somehow, with us, they produced the following documentaries for your comments, if time permits. 😉
Expect me to travel again with another post? If luck favors me, that will happen this August. Otherwise, let’s stay tuned on my blog till this November!
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