{"id":404,"date":"2025-03-15T21:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T21:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/avm1\/?p=404"},"modified":"2025-03-18T18:15:08","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:15:08","slug":"deirdre-boyle-on-filmmaker-rithy-pahn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/avm1\/2025\/03\/15\/deirdre-boyle-on-filmmaker-rithy-pahn\/","title":{"rendered":"Deirdre Boyle on filmmaker Rithy Pahn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alisa interviews Deirdre Boyle on the occasion of the publication of her remarkable and important new book Ferryman of Memories<\/em>: The Films of Rithy Pahn<\/em> about the legendary Cambodian filmmaker and his work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

< Podcast sound file embedded here ><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Show Notes<\/u><\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rithy Panh is the most famous Cambodian director in the world, with more than twenty films to his name, documentary and fiction, and yet he remains little known in the English speaking world. Documentary specialists will be familiar with a few of his best known works, mainly his unparalleled “perpetrator” film S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine<\/em> (2003) in which former cadres contend with their past at an infamous security prison under the Khmer Rouge regime, and his academy award nominated The Missing Picture<\/em>, in which he uses clay figurines to represent his memories during the Pol Pot regime’s extermination campaign. While both of these films are undeniably masterpieces of filmmaking, they represent a small portion of his oeuvre, which is as varied as it is original. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this episode, Alisa Lebow interviews Deirdre Boyle, the author of the recent monograph Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy Panh <\/em>(Rutgers University Press, 2023). Boyle, who is both a film scholar and a psychotherapist, spent nearly a decade researching Panh’s films and his impressive cultural work. Her unique book weaves in-depth research with personal reflections as she recounts the process of piecing together all of the accomplishments of this fascinating filmmaker along with the complexities of the socio-political history and cultural context in which his work is steeped. Boyle discusses her motivations for writing the book and provides profound insight into the workings of this singular director. We hope this interview steers readers towards Boyle’s fascinating book, and even more so, to exploring the full range of Panh’s extraordinary films.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rithy Panh, Partial Filmography<\/strong>: <\/strong>(*Films mentioned by name in the podcast episode<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n