This looks like it will be a very interesting documentary! I'm friends with some people in the video, including Kosal, and it's always more interesting to see a film about people you know.







Prisoner-turned-poet Khiev Ko­sal isn’t your typical bard.

Born in a Thai refugee camp after his family fled the Khmer Rouge, Mr. Kosal found asylum in the U.S. Growing up in Southern California, however, he followed his cousins and joined a street gang, embarking on a life of crime aged just 14.

At 15, he was arrested for attempted murder. He was jailed for 14 years and, in 2011—his criminal charge besmirching his path to U.S. citizenship—Mr. Ko­sal was deported as a “criminal alien” to Cambodia, a land he had never seen.

Mr. Kosal’s life and career is the subject of the upcoming documentary “Cambodian Son,” directed by Masahiro Sugano and produced by Phnom Penh-based Studio Revolt, slated for theater release on January 30.

The documentary captures Mr. Ko­sal’s struggles and small triumphs as he rebounds from his prison term and deportation, armed with little but his words.

Introduced to poetry by a fellow inmate while in prison, he uses spoken word poetry—a form of performance-based verse that focuses on dynamic delivery—to express grief, confusion and, mostly, rage.

The documentary centers on Mr. Kosal’s journey to the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad—a series of events celebrating the arts from nations competing in the Olympic Games—where Mr. Kosal, to his surprise, was named Cambodia’s representative.

But although the film focuses on Mr. Kosal’s life, it also sheds light on the broader plight of self-proclaimed “Khmer Exiled Americans”—a term describing a generation of Cambo­di­an refugees in the U.S. who were incarcerated in their youth and deported to a country they had never known.

Aided by sparse but illuminating title cards, director Mr. Suga­no places Mr. Kosal’s account in context: the deportation of nearly 2 million people from the U.S. between 2009 and 2013, as well as the prison-industrial complex that—save for a few educational and art initiatives like ones that allowed Mr. Ko­sal’s unshackling through poetry—fails to rehabilitate former inmates.

“Chink This, Chink That”

Mr. Kosal moved to Santa Ana, California, as an infant with his mother and half-siblings, refugees from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime and the ensuing chaos of civil war. Cambodian refu­gees face significant challenges on reaching the U.S., according to Jac­que­line Dan, an immigration attorney at Asian Ameri­cans Adancing Justice.

“Having survived the horrors of genocide and civil war, more than half of the community still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorders, and studies have shown that even children born and raised in the U.S. can inherit such trauma from their parents,” she wrote in an email.

In the film, other Cambodian-Americans share the difficulties of growing up in California: “Standin’ in the lunch line, right,” one says in the film of the racism he encountered, “it was like…‘chink this, chink that.’”

To deal with bullying, Ms. Dan says, many young Cambodian-Americans turn to gangs for protection, only to be trapped in a cycle of street violence that few escape—save to prison.

Ms. Dan says most of her clients report heavy policing and racial profiling in their neighborhoods.

“Very little disaggregated data on incarceration by ethnic group exists, but the California Youth Authority reported that its incarceration rate for Cambodian-American youth was four times what it would expect given the relatively small size of the community statewide,” she said.

As a teenager, Mr. Kosal was tried as an adult for his role in a gang shoot-out.

“Correction. A gavel. A man in a black robe. 16 years old, 16 years,” one of his poems goes.

“Another Brand of Cattle”

“I made a lot of bad choices, bad decisions growing up,” Mr. Kosal says in the film.

But for Mr. Kosal—and many immigrants who have not obtained U.S. citizenship—the punishment extends beyond a prison term.

“Deportable offenses include certain immigration violations (e.g., fraud), national security of­fenses, and criminal convictions arising out of federal or state law,” Ms. Dan said.

Convicted immigrants fall under the watch of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Immi­gration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), tasked with the “apprehension, detention and removal of ali­ens” like Mr. Kosal.

“DHS has increasingly prioritized the removal of immigrants with criminal convictions, which resulted in a surge in raids, arrests, and removals to Cambodia especially over the past 5 years,” Ms. Dan said.

According to its website, in fiscal year 2014, ICE deported 315,943 people—“Two strikes you go, another brand of cattle,” Mr. Kosal says of the situation in one of his poems.

So, in the film, we meet Cambodia’s community of “exiles,” Cambodian-Americans who, after being incarcerated in the U.S., face lifetime immigration bans to the country where they grew up.

Dropped on Cambodian soil as neither native nor expatriate, many struggle to fit in.

“Everywhere we go, people hate us,” KK, founder of the NGO Tiny Toones and another Cambodian-American deportee.......

http://goo.gl/3mCb8D

I know Kosal and few other "deportees", including KK of Tiny Toones. Some of these guys are really trying to make the best of a shitty situation and I wish them all the best. Looking forward to seeing Cambodian Son when I get home.

More info about the film, Cambodia's Son:





PHNOM PENH (Khmer Times) – Cambodia’s Son is an experimental documentary about Kosal Khiev, an experimental man. Deported from the U.S., this former California gang member is reinventing himself as a bicultural bard of Phnom Penh.

From Crime to Inspirational Words

The 90-minute film comes across much the way Mr. Kosal performs his poetry of spoken word. Film director Masahiro Sugano mixes black and white imagery, animation, upside down shots, and scenes of plants – all in an attempt to break away from the seriousness and raw emotions shown with Mr. Kosal’s poetry. Flares of anger and the choked words he uses are often time difficult to hear without feeling his torture. He describes how he and other deportees are still finding their way, after being displaced from both America and Cambodia.

In 2011, Mr. Kosal was deported to Cambodia. He no longer was the one year old babe who left with his family, fleeing the destruction of the Khmer Rouge. He returned as a 32-year-old man who had been convicted and sentenced for 17 years in a state penitentiary for attempted murder -- a crime he committed at 14 years old.

The film follows Mr. Kosal as he struggles to find stability in a country he never knew, while still mourning his prior life and family in the States.

Produced by Studio Revolt, the film follows Mr. Kosal’s life and this unexpected influence of his spoken words. His popularity catapults him into the lime light of performing as Cambodia’s representative at a cultural Olympiad attached to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He embarks on an unexpected adventure of wonder, loss, prejudice and discovery of a new life.

The film portrays Mr. Kosal’s family back in the States. Through great editing and soft music, the clip shows family members describing the troubled Kosal. Disconnected from their exiled youngest son and brother, the film shows an imperfect human spirit battling to keep hope and perseverance.

A Community of Exiles

Although the film focuses on Mr. Kosal’s life, he is just one of the two million people who have been deported by the U.S. government between 2009 to 2013. Over the last decade, about 600 Cambodian-Americans have been deported here. And another 1,900 are in various stages of the deportation pipeline.

Two short films were made previously by Studio Revolt. The independent media lab is run by Osaka born Sugano and his partner producer Anida Yoeu Ali, who was born in Battambang and raised in Chicago.

Raising awareness of the growing deportation of Cambodian Americans to a country they barely knew, “Cambodia’s Son” is their first feature film to address the ongoing drama of separating family members. People who left Cambodia as children and refugees, grew up in poor neighborhoods, still recovering from the pyschological trauma of flight from genocide.

Most “exiles” failed to become legal citizens in the United States before turning 18. After being convicted of a crime, they received sentences made more painful by deportation.

“Because of the cruel, humorous and generous fate of his, Kosal came to represent many American social issues that most of us would read in the newspaper or history books,” Mr. Sugano said. “I believed in my gut that if I followed him with clear and open eyes, the story would unfold somehow, and its message would make itself evident.”

Many other deportees were interviewed in the film. Most of were separated from their family and had little to no support when they arrived in Cambodia. They left the Kingdom as children the way they returned as adults — with nothing.

But Kosal persevered. So did many of his fellow exiles, forced to start anew in Phnom Penh.

Without pulling punches, Mr. Sugano showed Kosal as a human being full of doubts, inspiration, depression, and hope. In a roller coaster of good and bad luck, Kosal is an interesting person to watch.

The premiere of “Cambodia’s Son” takes place at Aeon Mall’s Cineplex on Jan. 29 at 6pm. After the showing, there will be a Q&A discussion with the director, the producer, and Kosal Khiev.

http://goo.gl/niMN7s