EVENT: Emeritus Professor Deirdre Boyle Launches New Book ‘Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy Panh’ Followed by a Conversation
THURSDAY | MAR 30 | 5–6:30 PM | VIRTUAL
BOOK LAUNCH + CONVERSATION
REGISTER FOR THIS EVENT
FERRYMAN OF MEMORIES: The Films of Rithy Panh
(MARCH 2023, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY PRESS)
Conversation with author DEIRDRE BOYLE and scholar/filmmaker JILL GODMILOW. The book, Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy Panh features the story of award-winning filmmaker Panh, a survivor of the Cambodian genocide who moved to France, and discovered a film language to tell what happened to the over two million souls who suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
Ferryman of Memories: The Films of Rithy Panh is an unconventional book about an unconventional filmmaker. Rithy Panh survived the Cambodian genocide and found refuge in France where he discovered in film a language that allowed him to tell what happened to the two million souls who suffered hunger, overwork, disease, and death at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. His innovative cinema is made with people, not about them—even those guilty of crimes against humanity. Whether he is directing Isabelle Huppert in The Sea Wall, following labourers digging trenches or interrogating the infamous director of S-21 prison, aesthetics and ethics inform all he does.
With remarkable access to the director and his work, Deirdre Boyle introduces readers to Panh’s ground-breaking approach to perpetrator cinema and dazzling critique of colonialism, globalization, and the refugee crisis. Ferryman of Memories reveals the art of one of the masters of world cinema today, focusing on nineteen of his award-winning films, including Rice People, The Land of Wandering Souls, S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, and The Missing Picture.
DEIRDRE BOYLE is Professor Emerita of Media Studies at The New School in New York where she directed the Graduate Certificate in Documentary Media Studies. She is a writer, media historian, and psychotherapist. Her books include Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited, among others. She has received Guggenheim and Asian Cultural Council fellowships as well as writing residencies at MacDowell and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
