CAAM-funded documentary THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOUN), directed by Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phravasath has been nominated for the 2009 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award!
Made over a twenty-year period, the film is a unique collaboration between Kuras (whose cinematography credits include ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND and SUMMER OF SAM) and Phravasath, whose family is the subject of the film. THE BETRAYAL chronicles the experiences of the Phravasath family, Laoatian refugees who arrived in Brooklyn in the early 80s, and struggled to make a new home while grappling with memories of war and dislocation.
THE BETRAYAL was the recipient of production grant from CAAM’s Media Fund in 1994. In 2007 CAAM’s SF Int’l Asian American Film Festival presented it as a work in progress, and the film was completed in 2008. It has screened at film festivals world-wide, including Sundance, Berlin, and the Flaherty Film Seminar.
THE BETRAYAL is currently being released in the US, and will open in the Bay Area on February 27, 2009. Check www.thebetrayalmovie.com for dates in other cities. It will also be broadcast later this year on PBS’s POV series.
Additionally, Berkeley filmmaker Steven Okazaki has also been nominated for Best Short Documentary, for his work THE CONSCIENCE OF NHEM EN.
Congratulations Ellen, Thavi and Steven!
The Academy Awards will be announced on February 22, 2009.
