Celebrating our heritage in Vientiane

After years of wishful thinking, I have finally been able to make a visit to Vientiane. Visiting both the National Film Archive & Video Center and the Lao Archive of Traditional Music. It seems only appropriate that I was there to mark the first offical World Day of Audiovisual Heritage with collegues from Laos.

The banner marking the World Day of Audiovisual Heritage outside the National Film Archive and Video Center

The date for world heritage day (27th of October) caused some problems as this year it was also the same day marking the end of the Buddhist lent and the day of the accompanying boat races on the mother of all rivers, the Mekong.

The director of the National Film Archive & Video Center, Bounchao Phichit, therefore decided to hold a press conference the day before (26th October), but did not undertake any special activities on the day itself. I was very happy to participate at the press conference even though I don't speak a word of Lao.

Bounchao Phichit give me a briefing before the conference started, so I knew at least roughly what would be said. The morning started with a short introduction from Bounchao Phichit followed by a reading of the message from the Director General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura translated in to Lao.

Bounchao Phichit, Director of the National Film Archive & Video Center, reading the Message from Koïchiro Matsuura, Director - General of UNESCO

He then informed those present about the activities of the archive in the previous year. Points coverted included the amount of films produced and preserved, the number of regional screening events which had taken place and the sales figures for dvds and vcds produced by the archive (over 6000 sales, not a small number).

The deputy director of the archive then informed the audience about the finalists of a feature film script writing competition, the winner of which would be announced the following week. The winner would have their script made in to a feature film. The conference concluded with a Q&A session (which lead to some lively discussion), followed by the screen of two films: a documentary about the big flood in Vientiane in 1966 and a report from the October 1972 parade in the Soviet Union dubbed into Lao.

Two men are walking through the areas affected by the flood, singing a traditional song (Lam) to document it.

Before leaving Vientiane I met once again with Bounchao Phichit. He told me that indeed on the morning of 27th October, national radio proceeded to inform the nation about the World Day of Audiovisual Heritage, including an interview with Bounchao Phichit highlighting the importance of preserving personal audio, still images and video. In addition an article appeared in the Vientiane Times and the Lao national TV broadcast a short piece. I think this goes to show that the press conference was a success. I hope this day will be as successful for every country and for years to come.

Two teams of the boat race after having reached the finish line

I can only close by saying that most people in Vientiane (and by the number of people present, the surround area) spent the 27th October producing many more AV records, documenting the big boat race.