Cambodian Son

Deported to a theater near you. A cinematic journey into deportation and filmmaking in Cambodia.

Director Masahiro Sugano of Studio Revolt embarks on a special North American educational/promotional tour of Cambodian Son, his award winning feature documentary (90min) that follows the journey of an exiled American spoken word poet, Kosal Khiev, from the streets of Phnom Penh to the stages of London during the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

Khiev’s story brings to light multiple, intersecting issues including immigration and deportation, incarceration, juvenile justice, art as integral to healing and full human development, and so much more.  The film arrives at a time when Americans are in the midst of a fierce battle for humane immigration reform, and this documentary can be a vehicle to have deeper discussions, build consciousness about the experiences of immigrants from Asian America, and make connections between these experiences with other immigrant and refugee communities in the US.

The Asian/Pacific/American Institute is proud to bring the film to NYU and to host a post-screening conversation with Masahiro Sugano, Chhaya Chhoum (Mekong NYC), and Sandra Honigman (NYU DREAM Team).

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Co-sponsored by the NYU DREAM Team, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Southeast Asian Freedom Network, Columbia University Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and Mekong NYC.

Masahiro Sugano, a Sundance Film Festival alumni, is an award-winning filmmaker whose accolades stretch from a Student Academy Award nomination in 1997 to his most recent award as the 2013 grant recipient for Center for Asian American Media’s Innovation Fund. After an international run at film festivals in Pusan, Singapore, and Buenos Aires, Sugano’s first feature length film Art of Love was distributed on DVD. He earned a BA in philosophy from California State University (Northridge) and an MFA in film/video/animation from the University of Illinois (Chicago). His recent short film Why I Write (2011) won the Best Poem Performance on Film award at the 2012 Berlin Zebra Poetry Festival and the Best Director award at the 2013 Los Angeles Asians on Film Festival. Through his media lab Studio Revolt, Sugano has created short films featuring Khmer Exiled Americans on the issue of deportation. In 2011, the studio’s viral hit My Asian Americana won the publics’ vote for the White House What’s Your Story Video Challenge but was controversially dismissed by contest organizers. Cambodian Son is Sugano’s second feature, an award-winning documentary that follows the journey of an exiled American spoken word poet, Kosal Khiev, from the streets of Phnom Penh to the stages of London during the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. His next project is an experimental web series titled Verses in Exile a prequel to Cambodian Son that features more of Kosal Khiev’s biography is scheduled to stream on PBS.org on March 19, 2015. Sugano currently resides in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where he runs his media lab.