Film
New Year Baby
New Year Baby is a 2006 documentary by Socheata Poeuv about her family's survival of the Khmer Rouge and their new life in the United States.[1][2] Poeuv was born on Cambodian New Year in a refugee camp in Thailand and grew up in the United States without knowing what her family had lived through.[2]
Synopsis
After the Khmer Rouge years, Poeuv's family fled to a refugee camp in Thailand, where she was born. They later moved to Dallas, Texas, where relatives had sponsored their resettlement, and built a new life for themselves and their children.[3][4] At Christmas in 2002, her mother revealed a family secret.[4] Mala and Leakhena, whom Poeuv had known as her sisters, were her cousins. Her brother Scott was a half-brother, and her mother had been married before.[4] Poeuv's mother lost 30 relatives to the Khmer Rouge, and Poeuv has called the family "a patchwork quilt of survivors."[3]
Poeuv's mother had been married before she met Poeuv's father in a labor camp. Her first husband and their daughter died in the genocide, and she and her son survived.[3] Mala and Leakhena are her sister's daughters; their mother starved to death in the camp, and Poeuv's parents took them in.[3][4] The Khmer Rouge forced Poeuv's parents to marry.[3][5] Her father is a former soldier in the Cambodian army.[5]
Poeuv's parents invited her and Scott to Cambodia to meet relatives.[4] On the journey they visit her parents' hometowns, surviving relatives on both sides of the family, the labor camp where her parents met, and the place where Mala and Leakhena's mother was buried, near the camp latrine.[1][4] Poeuv also visits the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Angkor Wat, Pol Pot's burial site, the site of the Thai refugee camp where she was born, and the homes of former Khmer Rouge cadres.[6] She meets Son Soeum, the former Khmer Rouge district chief for the area of the camps where her family was held.[5] When her mother stops answering questions on camera, Poeuv continues the journey with her father.[6]
The film tells how Poeuv's father led his family through minefields and gunfire and across borders to the refugee camp in Thailand.[7][3]
Production and credits
Poeuv has said, "I started making this film out of a curiosity about my family's history." At first, she said, it was still a "glorified home video."[5] She wrote the film with Charles Vogl, who produced it.[1][8] Jason Bolling was the cinematographer and traveled with her in Cambodia. Sandra Christie edited the film, and Gil Talmi composed the music.[1][4] Animation by Paul and Sandra Fierlinger shows Poeuv's childhood fears and dramatic reenactments.[4][6] The film was made on a budget of $330,000.[9]
Broken English Productions made the film, with Dark Matter Productions as co-producer.[10][11] The television version is a co-production of Broken English Productions and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), in association with the Center for Asian American Media.[5] The feature version runs 80 minutes.[8][12] The IDFA archive lists 75 minutes for the 2006 premiere.[10] The ITVS version runs 53 minutes, and one reviewer gives 74 minutes.[5][9]
Release and reception
The film premiered at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in November 2006. At the premiere, it won the "Movies That Matter" human rights award from Amnesty International.[13][12] It aired nationally on PBS in 2008, in the Independent Lens series.[1][14] ITVS also brought it to audiences through its Community Cinema program.[5] It won nine awards in all, among them:[12]
- Best Documentary, AFI Dallas International Film Festival[12]
- Audience Award, Los Angeles VC Film Festival[6]
- Crystal Heart Award, Heartland Film Festival[9][12]
Watch
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Wikipedia
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 PBS, Independent Lens: New Year Baby
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 St. Louis Public Radio, Mary Delach Leonard, Survivors: Film examines legacy of Cambodian genocide (May 4, 2008)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 PopMatters, Independent Lens: New Year Baby (2008-05-27)
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 ITVS, New Year Baby discussion guide
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 international.ucla.edu, VC Film Fest 2007 capsules - documentaries (2007-05-11)
- ↑ Sojourners, Anna Almendrala, 'New Year Baby' Documents Khmer Rouge Survivors (May 21, 2008)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Rotten Tomatoes, New Year Baby
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 The Independent Critic, New Year Baby review
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 IDFA Archive, New Year Baby (2006)
- ↑ IMDb, New Year Baby (2006) ⭐ 8.4 - Documentary (2025-08-01)
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University, 5th Annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Film Festival (2013)
- ↑ The Tufts Daily, Award-winning filmmaker visits campus (October 21, 2008)
- ↑ PBS