Past Projects
CNN / ILO (2004)
Navigator completed a series of short news reports for CNN International’s World Report. The series commissioned by the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) examines the issues affecting Cambodian workers and in particular those related to the country’s leading foreign currency earner – the garment industry. The six three minute stories looked into the lives of workers, conditions in factories, the relationship between employers and employees and the labour laws and rights of workers in Cambodia.
BBC 1 Blue Peter (2004)
Navigator locally produced and filmed for the BBC’s flagship children’s television series “Blue Peter”. 2004 saw the 25th anniversary of the famous appeal for Cambodia initiated by the Blue Peter team after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. This year the show and its Bafta award-winning presenter Matt Baker returned to Cambodia to examine how the projects originally funded by the viewers of Blue Peter all those years ago have faired and how they continue to make a real impact on people’s lives. The new show also examined some of the pressing issues facing Cambodia today like wildlife conservation and the preservation of indigenous culture and monuments.
UXO Lao / UNDP, Lao PDR, Claiming the Future (2004)
Navigator produced a cutting edge promotional film for UXO Lao, the national humanitarian landmine and unexploded ordnance programme in the Lao PDR. Camera and direction by Navigator Associate, Ian White (eyewhite@senisvara.com).
Available for download – please email: paul@navigator-communcations.com
BBC World Television Trust / DFID
Navigator Communications completed a ‘Pilot’ Soap Opera for the BBC World Television Trust which is part of the BBC’s commitment to promoting Aids/HIV awareness and education in developing countries. The 20 minute pilot was funded by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) and the BBC and is part of a three year, three million dollar campaign to promote a better understanding of the issues surrounding Aids/HIV. Set in a Cambodian nurses’ training college and hospital the soap opera has a cast of 8 main characters and more than 30 supporting roles. Filmed entirely by a Cambodian crew and performed by many of the country’s best known actors and some talented newcomers, this lead episode to a 74 part series has received unprecedented reviews and support by both the local population and the Cambodian Ministry of Health.
UNHCR – Sri Lanka
Navigator Communications undertook a filming assignment, commissioned by UNHCR (Geneva), focusing on the plight of refugees and IDP’s returning to their former homes and villages in the Jaffna region of Sri Lanka. The film graphically illustrated the conditions in which people are living now, and those in the areas they are returning to. It highlighted the enthusiasm that returnees show for going home but also the reality of what actually awaits them in these sometimes dangerous and ill-serviced areas: destroyed homes, landmines and unexploded ordnance, a lack of schools, hospitals and clinics or even basic sanitation or clean water. The project was part of UNHCR’s World Refugee Day television coverage for national and international media outlets, and was broadcast around the world in an effort to raise awareness of the issues facing refugees as they return to this troubled region.
UNESCO – Royal Ballet, Cambodia
Working in collaboration with UNESCO and the Cambodian Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Navigator Communications produced a short film to support the Royal Ballet of Cambodia’s candidature for the Proclamation of Masterpieces or Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. This unique status was granted to the Royal Ballet in November 2003 and the film played an integral part of the extensive application process. The film’s aim was to illustrate the efforts that have been undertaken by UNESCO and the Royal Cambodian Government to manage, preserve, protect and promote this truly unique example of traditional culture. Using extensive archive footage, as well as newly shot images, the film took the viewer on a journey from the ballet’s origins at the court of the ancient Khmer empire, through its ruin at the destructive hands of the Khmer Rouge, to its resurgence as the pre-eminent symbol, and centre-piece, of Cambodian culture. The film received special praise from UNESCO for its clarity of message and for its remarkable imagery.
CD Rom – Angkor: Ten Centuries of Fascination
In collaboration with the Paris based multi-media company ExtraMundi Productions, Navigator have been involved in the production of a totally revised, English language version of the award winning CD Rom ‘Angkor: Ten Centuries of Fascination’. It is, without doubt, the most comprehensive piece of work of its type on the subject of the temples of Angkor.
The objective of the CDRom was to give interested parties, historians, students, visitors to Angkor, ‘Cambodia-ophiles’, archaeologists and virtually anyone with an interest in monuments and history a broad understanding of how the temples came to be, who built them and why, and their significance to Cambodia in its past, present and future.
It is a huge body of work which delves deep into a whole range of social, economic and political issues related to the temples. It explores the Cambodian myths regarding creation, the complex hydraulic systems related to the temples that impact every facet of Cambodian life, the memories of the great explorers of Angkor and particularly those of the L’Ecole Francaise d’Extreme-Orient. In addition it informs about the life of the temples, and the all important rhythm of the seasons to Cambodia. It explores in great detail the individual temples themselves, the truly unique art forms and statuary developed during the Angkorian period, and the legends and traditions which have evolved around the temples.
The CDRom includes 1000′s of photographs, maps, architectural plans and diagrams, graphics, 3D images, 360 degree panoramics, animated graphics, satellite photographs and video sequences.
RedR Security Management Training Video Series –new DVD release
Navigator Communication’s well-received training series was released on DVD in 2003. The films have made a massive impact on the effectiveness of security management training in the humanitarian sector, and are also acknowledged as having developed the concepts taught on the course. See http://www.redr.org/london/shop/video.htm
Amnesty International Far from the Eyes of Society (2002)
20 minute broadcast documentary / video news release and supporting B Roll, focusing on mental health and social care issues in Bulgaria . Far from the Eyes of Society was used by Amnesty International’s Secretary General when she launched Amnesty’s report on these issues in Sophia on 10th October 2002. Broadcast in Bulgaria and streamed on the Amnesty website.
DFID/RedR, Security Training Video Resources Project (2002)
A 6 month DFID / EC funded project to provide a series of training videos to support international security management training for aid agencies. The resources have been developed to support the training delivered by RedR (the UK based NGO, Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief). This has involved shooting in the UK, Switzerland, Kenya and Cambodia, and incorporates archive material from broadcast films (including The Killing Fields and Mentorn Barraclough Carey’s award winning 1999 documentary on Kosovo, The Valley) and humanitarian (ICRC, UNHCR, Oxfam and Amnesty International) sources.
UNICEF – The Victim: Srey Prous’ Story
45 minute training film on child trafficking and abduction. This film was made for the Cambodian Ministry of the Interior and the Cambodian National Police force to dramatically illustrate the plight of child victims forced into the sex industry
National Geographic / October Films - Out There – Sentinels of Death
30 minute documentary on the latest advances in mechanical demining machinery. This film is part of the award winning National Geographic series, broadcast worldwide.
United Nations, Deadly Harvest
Documentary/promotional film on the plight of refugees returning to mined land and the work of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (1993).
ORF Television / Mines Advisory Group, Surviving the Peace
German language broadcast documentary (broadcast in both Austria and Germany), and English language non-broadcast documentary, on Bosnian refugees returning to former front line villages for the Thema magazine programme (1998).
Discovery Channel, Canada, Danger Mines, Danger UXO
A broadcast documentary on the impact of landmines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia and Laos (1997).
Mines Advisory Group, Promotional Films
About their operations in Cambodia (Liberating the Land, 1994) and Lao PDR (Secret War, Secret Slaughter, 1995).
Christian Aid Appeals, Ethiopia (1993 & 1997)
Production management for award winning RSA and Union Films television commercials.
Church World Service (CWS), Helping a Hurting World
A series of video vignettes illustrating CWS’s relief and development work in Cambodia. The footage was used in both broadcast and non-broadcast formats (1995)
Cambodia & Laos Grass Roots Audio-Visual Project for TVE & PANOS London/Oxfam Netherlands
An integrated oral testimony and community video project, developed in partnership with Television Trust for the Environment (1997)
Written publications include:-
War of the Mines: Cambodia, Landmines and the Impoverishment of a Nation (Pluto Press, London & Boulder Colorado)
Ground breaking work documenting the socio-economic and human impact of landmines in Cambodia, illustrated with 100 black and white photographs. As a campaigning work, the book made a significant contribution to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize), and received the endorsement of over 50 international humanitarian aid organisations, including UNICEF and UNHCR. A Japanese version of War of the Mines appeared in 1996.