For the past 36 years, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) has been steadfast in producing and presenting compelling and innovative stories by and about Asian Americans for a diverse world. Help us reach our goal of raising $7,500 by December 31, 2016 by donating $50 or more to CAAM on our secure website CAAMedia.org/StoriesthatUnite.
Thanks to everyone who has supported the campaign to date, we have raised $6,765 with 2 days left to raise the $735 left to reach our goal.
We believe that the stories we tell offer insights into Asian American experiences, such as the experiences of Cambodian and Cambodian Americans in the aftermath of the bloody regime Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Filmmaker Michael Siv was one of the people whose life and family was forever changed by their experiences and their search for justice.
At six years old, Michael Siv immigrated to San Francisco with his mother as refugees, leaving behind his father and brother in Cambodia. He became involved in filmmaking through an after-school media program located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, run by the award-winning filmmaker Spencer Nakasako. At 24, he was featured in Nakasako’s film REFUGEE, documenting his return to Cambodia to meet his father and brother. Siv’s first documentary WHO I BECAME, was part of the “Matters of Race” series that premiered on national PBS in 2003.
Siv’s second project, DAZE OF JUSTICE is produced by CAAM and received MacArthur Foundation’s Documentary Film Grant. The film world premiered at CAAMFest 2016 and has screened at several other festivals throughout the nation since its world premiere. DAZE OF JUSTICE “follows a group of Cambodian Americans as they return to Cambodia to observe the Khmer Rouge Tribunals. The group consists of genocide survivors, including Cambodian-born advocate and professor at California State University, Long Beach Professor Leakhena Nou, and Siv, who documents the trip. Along the way, they encounter Hong Siu Pheng, the son of convicted war criminal Kang Kek Iew (a.k.a. Duch), who oversaw the notorious Tuol Sleng (S-21) prison, where as many as 20,000 people were killed. In a twist of fate, Pheng unexpectedly decides to join the group on their search for justice.”
Help us bring to light more stories like that of Michael Siv’s, by donating before December 31, 2016. Your donation (of any amount) is an investment in storytellers and stories that can celebrate diversity, build community, and effect positive and lasting change in the future of our country.
If your company has an employee matching gift program, please increase the impact of your gift by requesting amatching gift. For more information, please contact Jennifer Chu, Membership Manager, at jchu@caamedia.org or (415) 863-0814 extension 102.
Trailer for the CAAM-produced documentary DAZE OF JUSICE by Michael Siv.
