Granny Archive

Brief: As the Project lead, supported a group of CCF leadership students who wanted to document and preserve the life stories of the oldest women in the CCF granny program, giving them a platform to share their experiences, and providing students with practical skills in interviewing, research and documentary filmmaking.

Date: 2022 – 2023

Outcome: A youth leadership project was created to help students plan, research and produce a series of short documentary films. Students interviewed the ten oldest grannies and selected five stories to develop into films. Working with a local production company and funded by the New Zealand Embassy, students learned story development, interviewing techniques, production planning and how to work on location in the grannies’ home provinces. The project preserves personal histories of surviving the Khmer Rouge, life in rural Cambodia, migration to Phnom Penh, and years spent scavenging on the Steung Meanchey dumpsite, while building students’ skills and empathy.

The Granny Archive Project is a student‑led oral history and documentary initiative at Cambodian Children’s Fund. CCF students worked alongside filmmakers to create a series of films that honour grannies as survivors, culture‑keepers and community elders. The grannies’ testimonies record traditions, customs, memories of their home provinces and their journeys through war, displacement and extreme poverty, transforming them from overlooked dump scavengers into recognised custodians of memory.

The five short films focus on key themes such as sisterhood, travel and migration, customs and traditions, life in Phnom Penh and survival of the Khmer Rouge.