By Lori Gilbert
Record Staff Writer
August 09, 2011
Film maker Daron Ker experienced the Killing Fields firsthand. He was a 2-year-old when his family was taken in 1975 from their home in Phnom Penh and imprisoned in what he calls a "concentration camp" in Battanborng, Cambodia, during the reign of Pol Pot, when as many 1.7 million people were killed.
Stockton's Sombot Chet was too young to experience the horrors. She was born in the Philippines in 1984 as her parents made their way from a refugee camp in Thailand to the United States.
Though nine years apart in age, the two share a dream for Cambodians and Americans alike.
They want the country to be known for something more than the Killing Fields.
Ker documented fellow refugee Joe Cook's return to Cambodia to create the country's first baseball team in a film called "Rice Field of Dreams" and Chet has helped arrange for the film to be shown in Stockton.
Ker will bring the movie to the Empire Theatre for an 8:30 p.m. screening on Friday. Tickets are $10 and proceeds will benefit a Southern California family that lost its father to a heart attack on a family fishing trip.
"I just heard the story and wanted to help," Ker said.
Helping others is what drives Ker, just as it does Chet and just as it does Cook, who was born Joeurt Puk and arrived in the U.S. in 1983, a 12-year-old who'd escaped the prison camps.
A chef in a Japanese restaurant in Tennessee, Cook returned to Cambodia and in 2002 staged the country's first baseball game. He took his national team to Thailand for the 2007 Southeast Asian Games. Ker documented the journey to that international competition in his film that debuted in April in Long Beach.
"The Cambodian American community is big there," Ker said. "I thought it would be great to show during Cambodian New Year, to introduce myself to the community. I lived in Southern California most of my life. I came to San Francisco for (the Academy of Art) college and decided I didn't want to move back to Southern California."
Ker had read a newspaper article about Cook, contacted him in 2004, and when Cook told him of the plans for the SAG trip, knew he had the narrative he needed for the film.
"The first time these (16- to 22-year-old) kids go from the rice fields to Thailand is exciting," Ker said. "I felt like I'm going to base the film on these 30 days and make it about the kids. It's about hopes and dreams and baseball."
It's also about something other than the Killing Fields, which Chet said is too frequently the only image Americans have of Cambodia.
"This film is so positive," Chet said. "Every person can make a difference. I believe I can make a difference starting with this film in Stockton."
Her dream is to create a nonprofit organization to help children in Cambodia.
"This is a little step toward doing what I want to do, which is giving back to my country, to help underprivileged kids in Cambodia," Chet said. "This is the first opportunity to really do something."
Unlike Ker and Cook, the single mother of two boys, ages 8 and 6, has not visited Cambodia, yet. Her knowledge of it comes from her parents and friends who have visited.
"My friends tell me before I go to expect to see kids picking up garbage to eat, living by themselves with no shoes," Chet said. "It breaks my heart. I have two boys of my own. I can't image 6-year-olds begging for money for anything. My dad said to me, 'You can't help all of them,' but I can start with one."
The heartbreak she feels for Cambodia isn't new. She grew up hearing bits and pieces of the horrors that drove Cambodians to the United States, but said most immigrants of her parents' generation largely kept the stories to themselves.
"No one says much," Chet said. "They were probably traumatized. My mom never said anything. I don't blame her."
Her mother, Chet said, doesn't understand why her daughter worked to bring "Rice Field of Dreams" to Stockton.
"They think I'm nuts doing this," said Chet, one of nine children in her family. "My mom just wants a peaceful life. I get that, after her own experiences. She doesn't want me to get in trouble. She's trying to protect me."
Chet, though, is like Ker, in wanting to shine a different light on Cambodia.
"It shows the next generation of American Cambodians, this is what happened after the Khmer Rouge," Ker said. "Before that, our country was beautiful. And here's this guy trying to bring baseball to it, something more positive. Young American Cambodians never go home. I hope they're touched by this journey, by how beautiful the people are, and I hope they think they can do something there. If anything can bring them back home and help, that would be a good thing."
Ker's own dream is to one day start a film school in his native Cambodia, a goal that stemmed from his experience of documenting the dreams of others.
Contact reporter Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or lgilbert@recordnetcom. Visit her blog at recordnet,com/lensblog.
August 09, 2011
Film maker Daron Ker experienced the Killing Fields firsthand. He was a 2-year-old when his family was taken in 1975 from their home in Phnom Penh and imprisoned in what he calls a "concentration camp" in Battanborng, Cambodia, during the reign of Pol Pot, when as many 1.7 million people were killed.
Stockton's Sombot Chet was too young to experience the horrors. She was born in the Philippines in 1984 as her parents made their way from a refugee camp in Thailand to the United States.
Though nine years apart in age, the two share a dream for Cambodians and Americans alike.
They want the country to be known for something more than the Killing Fields.
Ker documented fellow refugee Joe Cook's return to Cambodia to create the country's first baseball team in a film called "Rice Field of Dreams" and Chet has helped arrange for the film to be shown in Stockton.
Ker will bring the movie to the Empire Theatre for an 8:30 p.m. screening on Friday. Tickets are $10 and proceeds will benefit a Southern California family that lost its father to a heart attack on a family fishing trip.
"I just heard the story and wanted to help," Ker said.
Helping others is what drives Ker, just as it does Chet and just as it does Cook, who was born Joeurt Puk and arrived in the U.S. in 1983, a 12-year-old who'd escaped the prison camps.
A chef in a Japanese restaurant in Tennessee, Cook returned to Cambodia and in 2002 staged the country's first baseball game. He took his national team to Thailand for the 2007 Southeast Asian Games. Ker documented the journey to that international competition in his film that debuted in April in Long Beach.
"The Cambodian American community is big there," Ker said. "I thought it would be great to show during Cambodian New Year, to introduce myself to the community. I lived in Southern California most of my life. I came to San Francisco for (the Academy of Art) college and decided I didn't want to move back to Southern California."
Ker had read a newspaper article about Cook, contacted him in 2004, and when Cook told him of the plans for the SAG trip, knew he had the narrative he needed for the film.
"The first time these (16- to 22-year-old) kids go from the rice fields to Thailand is exciting," Ker said. "I felt like I'm going to base the film on these 30 days and make it about the kids. It's about hopes and dreams and baseball."
It's also about something other than the Killing Fields, which Chet said is too frequently the only image Americans have of Cambodia.
"This film is so positive," Chet said. "Every person can make a difference. I believe I can make a difference starting with this film in Stockton."
Her dream is to create a nonprofit organization to help children in Cambodia.
"This is a little step toward doing what I want to do, which is giving back to my country, to help underprivileged kids in Cambodia," Chet said. "This is the first opportunity to really do something."
Unlike Ker and Cook, the single mother of two boys, ages 8 and 6, has not visited Cambodia, yet. Her knowledge of it comes from her parents and friends who have visited.
"My friends tell me before I go to expect to see kids picking up garbage to eat, living by themselves with no shoes," Chet said. "It breaks my heart. I have two boys of my own. I can't image 6-year-olds begging for money for anything. My dad said to me, 'You can't help all of them,' but I can start with one."
The heartbreak she feels for Cambodia isn't new. She grew up hearing bits and pieces of the horrors that drove Cambodians to the United States, but said most immigrants of her parents' generation largely kept the stories to themselves.
"No one says much," Chet said. "They were probably traumatized. My mom never said anything. I don't blame her."
Her mother, Chet said, doesn't understand why her daughter worked to bring "Rice Field of Dreams" to Stockton.
"They think I'm nuts doing this," said Chet, one of nine children in her family. "My mom just wants a peaceful life. I get that, after her own experiences. She doesn't want me to get in trouble. She's trying to protect me."
Chet, though, is like Ker, in wanting to shine a different light on Cambodia.
"It shows the next generation of American Cambodians, this is what happened after the Khmer Rouge," Ker said. "Before that, our country was beautiful. And here's this guy trying to bring baseball to it, something more positive. Young American Cambodians never go home. I hope they're touched by this journey, by how beautiful the people are, and I hope they think they can do something there. If anything can bring them back home and help, that would be a good thing."
Ker's own dream is to one day start a film school in his native Cambodia, a goal that stemmed from his experience of documenting the dreams of others.
Contact reporter Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or lgilbert@recordnetcom. Visit her blog at recordnet,com/lensblog.
No comments:
Post a Comment