One day, Asian American director Socheata Poeuv learnt the truth about her family background. What began as a quest to learn more about her own history turned into a journey of discovery, forgiveness and hope, the end result being her critically acclaimed documentary film ‘New Year Baby’ which has been screened around the world to fascinated audiences and has garner several critics awards. Ms. Poeuv took time out to out to discuss her film, Cambodia and the film’s influence.
Socheata Poeuv - SP
iCUBED.us interviewer - Chris Lau
iCUBED.us: How did the idea for ‘New year baby’ come about?
SP: One Christmas Day when I was 23 years old my parents called a family meeting. In that meeting they told me that even though they had raised me, my brother and my two sisters as one nuclear family, we’re not nuclear at all. Basically, my sisters are my biological cousins, orphaned during the Khmer Rouge time. My brother is my half brother – my mother was married to someone else before I my father. This made me the only child of my two parents. It was that revelation that inspired me to go to Cambodia and uncover the full story of how my family was formed.
iCUBED.us: What were your first impressions of Cambodia? Were the country and people what you expected?
SP: Going to Cambodia for the first time was a joyous experience of discovery – meeting so many new family members, all the sights and sounds. The people are very warm and hospitable. The food is incredible and the weather is very intense.
It was also a haunting experience. Even though I did not endure the experiences of the Khmer Rouge, I could not shake those images of death and misery in my mind. Every landscape seemed like a possible backdrop for those scenes. Not only did I sense this at places like Tuol Sleng, but also in front of dilapidated colonial buildings.
iCUBED.us: From your experience, does the Khmer Rouge still cast a long shadow over Cambodia? Will time heal and will justice ever be reached?
SP: The Khmer Rouge does cast a long shadow over Cambodia, whether or not people experienced it or not. No Cambodian living in the country during the Khmer Rouge reign was untouched by their rule. Some people lost a few family members, others lost their entire bloodlines. It is possible for both healing and justice to occur, but it takes a concerted effort and concerted attention. Time itself does not facilitate either.
iCUBED.us: The documentary touches upon the ideas of identity and belonging? Did the project help you reinforce your own identity?
SP: The documentary allowed me to learn and experience all of the aspects of my family’s story that make me who I am today. Not only do I better understand the value system of Cambodians, but I think I also discovered how American I really am.
iCUBED.us: Has the experience brought you closer to both your heritage and family?
SP: Yes, I think I understand more intimately the perspective of my heritage and family. But culture and values are fluid dynamics and I also see where I can bring growth and progress to both of these things by being an example to Cambodians everywhere.
iCUBED.us: Did your parents like the end result? When you were younger, did they ever speak to you about Cambodia?
SP: My parents are proud of the film. They enjoyed being honored by the audience of New Year Baby who now see them as heroes! They were surprised to see how emotional and how moved people were by their life story. To them, their story is nothing special.
When I was growing up, I heard about Cambodia, but usually only in the context of us being so privileged in comparison to people in Cambodia. They didn’t really talk to me about what happened to them during the Khmer Rouge. So even as a young adult, I only had foggy ideas about what happened in this period of history. As I say in the film, I knew more about the Holocaust than the Cambodian genocide.
iCUBED.us: ‘New year Baby’ has screened all around the world and has won several awards! Is this how you envisioned the project would end? Out of all the plaudits, which one stands out?
SP: We have been very happy with the viewership of the film and the number of awards we have won. You can’t ask for more than a national television prime time broadcast in America. When I first had the idea of making a documentary film, I never imagined that we would have such a broad base of support and such an amazing response from audiences. I am most proud of the film winning the Movies That Matter Award, an initiative of Amnesty International at IDFA, the largest documentary film festival in the world. It shows that the human rights community sees this film as a powerful tool to further human rights and justice efforts.
iCUBED.us: How responsive are young people who have watched the documentary?
SP: We have found that a younger audience responds very powerfully to the film. In fact, before we finished the film, we held a test screening with teenagers from the Bronx in New York City. We wanted to get a sense of where they got confused, bored or disengaged with the film. Overall, the test screening went over very positively – even to our surprise.
iCUBED.us: Just how important is it to document history? Is ‘New year Baby’ a form of oral history?
SP: After I made New Year Baby, I started an organization that seeks to document other stories of the Cambodian genocide on videotape by having the younger generation interview the older generation. You can read more about it at www.khmerlegacies.org. I felt that this was my chance to create an opportunity for other Cambodian Americans to pass on their story to the next generation. I also wanted to use the video testimonies as educational tools in order to teach about genocide.
iCUBED.us: Do you have any advice for any budding documentary film makers out there? What do you do now?
SP: My advice to documentary filmmakers is to try to spend as much time as possible doing your craft. Don’t ask for permission, just get a camera and get started. Don’t waste time talking about it or writing about it, just try it out. It’s useful to get training and to get the advice of filmmaking veterans. But at some point, you’ve just got to dive in. Experience will prove to be the best teacher.
Today, I am working full time on Khmer Legacies, trying to build the program into a national initiative here in America to collect stories from the Cambodian genocide.
New Year Baby will be part of the Hong Kong UNHCR’ s World Refugee Day celebrations - June 20, 2009. For more details see below:
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