ABOUT SIEM REAP
Angkor is one of the most important archaeological and culturally significant sites in Southeast Asia and is located in Siem Reap in the northwest region of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Angkor Archaeological Park contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th century including dozens of temple ruins including the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple – all majestic and aweinspiring relics of an ancient and once-power Khmer Empire. Covered in thousands of feet of intricate and marvelous stone carvings depicting scenes from Hindu mythology, the temples at Angkor have a mystery and beauty that those visiting will ever forget. Angkor was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1992 and since then, UNESCO has set up a wide-ranging program to safeguard this symbolic site and its surroundings.
Siem Reap is selected as the setting for the Angkor Wat International Film Festival because it represents an admirable endeavor to preserve culture and the environment through ecotourism. Built in the early 12th Century, Angkor Wat is a testament to the majesty of an ancient culture preserved in stone for the world to experience as well as a symbol as source of pride for the Kingdom of Cambodia. It is also a testament to the culture and people of Cambodia who, having gone through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, have persevered and are rebuilding their culture, lives and country with strength and bravado.
Located in the north of the country. Siem Reap has been a tourist destination for over 100 years, is now a thriving and fascinating city featuring French colonial-era buildings, Chinese architecture and a bustling Old Market – as well as a wide range of hotels and guesthouses, restaurants, shops and galleries, and cultural institutions and programs. Here the traditional Cambodia co-exists with the new Cambodia of hope and opportunity.
The Angkor Wat International Film Festival is a celebration of world cinema whose subjects and themes deal with the preservation of culture and environment. This is an important focus in a world where the pressures to homogenize cultures through enculturation and globalization are seen as progress -- and inevitable. This results in traditional indigenous ethos and values being replaced by new beliefs that fuel consumerism and materialism, placing both the traditional cultures and our planet’s ecosystem at risk.
It, too, is a celebration of the Khmer people and the Kingdom of Cambodia past and present – and into the future. Siem Reap is at the crossroad of the ancient and the new world – a perfect location to celebrate the past and the future with the preservation of culture and environment from all over the world though film and digital cinema and through the eyes of the professional filmmaker as well as the uninitiated.
The Angkor Wat International Film Festival supports the important work and goals of the World Heritage Centre (http://.whc.unesco.org) in “encouraging countries around the world to sign the World Heritage Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage,” and to “encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage.
Siem Reap is selected as the setting for the Angkor Wat International Film Festival because it represents an admirable endeavor to preserve culture and the environment through ecotourism. Built in the early 12th Century, Angkor Wat is a testament to the majesty of an ancient culture preserved in stone for the world to experience as well as a symbol as source of pride for the Kingdom of Cambodia. It is also a testament to the culture and people of Cambodia who, having gone through the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, have persevered and are rebuilding their culture, lives and country with strength and bravado.
Located in the north of the country. Siem Reap has been a tourist destination for over 100 years, is now a thriving and fascinating city featuring French colonial-era buildings, Chinese architecture and a bustling Old Market – as well as a wide range of hotels and guesthouses, restaurants, shops and galleries, and cultural institutions and programs. Here the traditional Cambodia co-exists with the new Cambodia of hope and opportunity.
The Angkor Wat International Film Festival is a celebration of world cinema whose subjects and themes deal with the preservation of culture and environment. This is an important focus in a world where the pressures to homogenize cultures through enculturation and globalization are seen as progress -- and inevitable. This results in traditional indigenous ethos and values being replaced by new beliefs that fuel consumerism and materialism, placing both the traditional cultures and our planet’s ecosystem at risk.
It, too, is a celebration of the Khmer people and the Kingdom of Cambodia past and present – and into the future. Siem Reap is at the crossroad of the ancient and the new world – a perfect location to celebrate the past and the future with the preservation of culture and environment from all over the world though film and digital cinema and through the eyes of the professional filmmaker as well as the uninitiated.
The Angkor Wat International Film Festival supports the important work and goals of the World Heritage Centre (http://.whc.unesco.org) in “encouraging countries around the world to sign the World Heritage Convention and to ensure the protection of their natural and cultural heritage,” and to “encourage international cooperation in the conservation of our world’s cultural and natural heritage.
