Mech Choulay

Choulay MECH (born in 1992 in Kandal province) lives and works in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. She is an artist, documentary filmmaker, and freelance journalist at VOD. Her passion for the job is particularly on environmental and animal rights issues, and she has a sensitivity toward human-interest storytelling. She also helped with an article in early 2020 about Cambodian mental health facilities for the Washington Post. Earlier this year, she featured a wonderful feature on the changing lives of the fishing community in the floating villages around Tonle Sap, the country’s largest lake and river system.

She has a strong background in photography and video production as well. She has had photo exhibitions and completed one year of extensive training in documentary film production at the Bophana Audiovisual Resources Center, directing a short film “My Home” about elephant conservation in Mondulkiri. In 2020, she received an award from Creative Generation 3 Awards. The following year, she got three grants, one from Angkor Photo Festival in Cambodia, the second from Citizen Engaged in Environmental Justice for all (CEEJA), and the third from SUMERNET for media – research partnership for environmental reporting.

Her selected exhibitions include “The Mekong is blue and dried”, Sea Junction, BACC, Bangkok, 2021; TERATOTERA Festival, Web festival, Japan; Elements, Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh, 2020; Message in Mind, 10th Photo Phnom Penh Festival, TorTim Art Gallery, Phnom Penh, 2019 and Co (Contemporary and Documentary Photography Class), Sa Sa Art Projects, Phnom Penh, 2018.