mendymunster

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Week 13 HW

I am looking to have everything edited in by November 30. I could catch another interview, but B-Roll is the only thing I need right now aside from that, and I could get a lot over break.

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Week 12 HW

I think I could use a TV, some chairs or even a couch along with either some headphones or we could play it through the speakers.

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Hong Tien Vu Social Justice Talk

I was most interested in the last social justice talk because it had quite a bit to do with my topic as well. Professor Vu was presented the ways he was helping refugees with digital literacy. I was also surprised to learn that Vu is also a journalism professor at KU, so even more similar backgrounds.

During the talk, he explained the ways he taught digital literacy to refugees. This included things like learning how to use Microsoft Word, phones and computers, something we take for granted here in the states. He talked about the difficulty for many of the refugees to even use a mouse. Most of these people have really only used things like WhatsApp beforehand.

I think what was most important was when Vu was talking about not just digital literacy, but media literacy as a whole. With misinformation being able to be thrown every which way at a higher capacity than ever, it is important for them to know what they are reading. For people that used WhatsApp, it's common for tons of misinformation to be spread.

While Vu did come to the United States in 2009 and was not a part of the massive refugee wave through the 1980s-90s, I related very well with him. I even got a chance to talk with him one-on-one about getting refugees to trust technology, about my own experience with my dad who only pays in cash and check.

Overall, considering our common backgrounds as journalists and our families both being from the same part of the world, I think we really understood each other.

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Week 11 HW

I started banging out a script for my documentary video and gathered two more interviews. One with a girl who moved here from Cambodia 5 years ago and another one with a childhood friend.

A common theme I've recognized here is that despite being close-knit and tight with our own families, my generation never really grew up with Cambodian friends.

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Week 9 HW

I got another interview done with a girl named Kendra on Tuesday. I also managed to get footage of a Cambodian mourning gathering as well as some general footage inside a Cambodian community.

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Rough Production Schedule

From the rest of October to around November 5, I want to have all the footage (interviews, B-Roll, etc.) I need at my disposal. Throughout October, I want to be able to make some graphic templates and also make a storyboard of sorts for how I want things to be set up.

At the end of October, I want to get started on editing at the least of this huge project, while also hoping my computer exports it in a meaningful amount of time.

For the next five weeks or so, my uncle is on paternity leave and he agreed that he could help with getting in touch with people and some translation.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna try to make some sort of script for the things I want to say specifically. Eventually random spurts of motivation will tag in and I want to do good for a topic that is near and dear to my heart.

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Week 7 HW

Rapper VannDa Is a New Voice From Cambodia's New Generation. July 3, 2022. Phorn, Bopha. Vice.

VannDa is a rapper from Cambodia, something pretty uncommon. Most popular Cambodian music as of now would usually be covers of Western songs. I wanted to read up on him since he does what most Khmer kids are scared to do, sticking it to the man and defying the status quo.

Ros Serey Sothea: The golden-voiced Cambodian surf rocker slain by the Khmer Rouge. October 5, 2023. Golsen, Tyler. Far Out Magazine.

Much like VannDa, Sothea was a pioneer in her time, rebelling against the traditional Cambodian music, introducing Rock-and-Roll for the Cambodian people. However, she went missing after the Khmer Rouge took over and she is presumed to be dead. She is a symbol of things we lost.

Biggest source of immigrants to Wichita. February 18, 2021. Caldwell, Nicole. KSN.

As of the time the article had been written, Cambodian immigrants are the fifth most common foreign-born residents in Wichita.

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Week 7 HW

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9/28 HW

Cambodians in the U.S. Fact Sheet. April 29, 2021. Budiman, Abby. Pew Research Center.

Compared to all Asians in the U.S., Cambodian Americans are often poorer and less educated. While 73% of all Asians in the US have at least attended college, only 45% of Cambodians within the US have done so. It kind of dispels the whole model minority thing, which although "positive" is a racist stereotype.

Improving the Health of Cambodian Americans: Grassroots Approaches and Root Causes. 2016. Lee et al. Prog Community Health Partnership.

Cambodian Americans often have poor access to education, undergo trauma, community violence and issues such as unemployment leading to behavioral health issues such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, gambling and domestic violence. It may be confirmation bias, but I know this all too well.

Overcoming Challenges and Barriers Cambodian Refugees 'Accomplished So Much'. June 20, 2021. Soksreinith, Ten. Voice fo America.

Cambodian people have struggled mightily in their journey trying to stake a claim in their country. In order to protect themselves and find brotherhood, many of the young kids turned to gangs. Stuart Isett, a photographer made his own documentary book, capturing photos of the Khmer population in Chicago. It details the experience much of my own had went through to get to where they are now. Some still live that life.

Cambodian refugee's restaurant provides space to heal and celebrate culture. May 17, 2023. Sandeep Brijesh Pillai. PBS Newshour.

This Cambodian refugee wants his restaurant to heal himself from the hardships he endured as a youth in America. He wants Cambodia to be known for more than the Killing Fields and tragedy. Although he can't quite put the past behind him, he wants to be proud of his identity regardless of what happened to him.

Invisible Communities, Part 3: Cambodian Gang Members Seek Redemption in Lowell. May 12, 2010. WBUR.

Johnny Chheng was a leader of a gang in Lowell, Massachusetts. Ricky Le was one of his followers, but decided he wanted out. They beat Ricky into a 10-day coma. Chheng went to prison for attempted murder, and after his release, decided to make amends with Ricky. Although they were hesitant at first, Ricky accepted his apology.

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9/28 HW

[mendymunster]

9/28 HW

So far I have managed to grab another interviewee from TLC named Nancy Thach and get the phone number to Vichra, a recent immigrant to the US. I don't have any material as of right now, but will get some B-Roll done on Tuesday and my interview this week with Victoria from my last blog post.

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Radiolab Interview

As a journalist, I was appalled at the way Robert had handled the interview. Ideally, if he was doing his job the right way, such a situation would not have happened. In an interview, the best thing you can do is literally just "shut up". I get that they were analyzing fact as part of their podcast, but the interviewee is not here to debate. They are not a politician. But "The Fact of The Matter" is that Robert kept pushing a question that the Hmong woman and her uncle were not going to answer. As a journalist, you are supposed to work for the people, not work them. For a particularly sensitive issue such as this, you need to build an approach that will get them comfortable with you. With Robert, he made it sound like he was denying the Hmong's man experience. Regardless of whether or not "yellow rain" was real or just a case of diphtheria, you can only build a story by listening to your interviewee and then comparing the facts together in search of the best version of the truth. In the reflection part after the interview, Radiolab did state their intentions to the Hmong woman. However, this is a Grade A example of how to completely botch a source and burn a bridge. It should not have been published because it does absolutely nothing for the audience.

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Week 5 HW

I don't have the interview scheduled as of right now, but the person has agreed.

Name: Victoria Kdep

Victoria is the mom of one of my friends and has one of the viewpoints I want to grasp. Which is growing up as a Cambodian in the United States from a young age (enough to really only have memories in America), particularly during the 1990s. She would be part of the tail end of the large-scale migration from around 1975 to 1994.

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9/12 HW Part 4

This Cambodian-American documentary is about our journey to America. The struggles we went through, and our foothold in today's America.

Journey - It's about how we got here and what we did when we got to the United States. About the things we lost, people we lost and the things we gained and perhaps the things left for us. I'd like to ask the people who came here in the 80s and new-school immigrants for differing perspectives.

Struggle - It could be anything here really, perhaps alcohol and drug abuse in my community. Financial struggles, poverty in the Cambodian diaspora. We all struggled coming to the USA, some are still struggling today. My parents came here wanting to make sure their children had better lives than them.

Stake - Our jobs, what we own, our influence. I'm not too sure how to define this, but it's about what we have now, and the future that lies ahead.

I know for sure that I am going to use a video camera. I will probably have to use photos too along with Adobe Premiere. I just want to be able to create some kind of media that isn't necessarily news, expand my horizons so to speak.

My personal relationship is that I am Cambodian myself and I want to know about myself before the old vanishes into thin air.

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9/12 HW Part 3

The Donut King is a documentary about a Cambodian American, much like mine. It is a story about Ted Ngoy, a refugee who fled the brutal Khmer Rouge regime to California and carved out a mighty empire of donut shops during the 1980s. During his time as the "Donut King," he became revered as the model for success for Khmer immigrants. Despite his success, Ted lost his fortune in gambling and lost his empire. He lost everything including his family and returned to Cambodia having nothing left. Eventually, he returns to America agreeing to do so for the documentary, finally forgiven by his ex-wife and children.

Deportation is a heavy topic in the Cambodian community. I, myself have knowledge of others in Wichita that are "returned" to Cambodia, having lived in the United States for years, not knowing their own home. The article talks about Cambodians in California that have been deported due to being aggravated felons in the United States. One of the repatriates is Phal Pen, a man deported after being found in possession of meth. Before that, Pen had plead guilty to domestic violence. It was enough for Pen to be deported to a country he had not seen in decades. Pen was stuck in a country he did not know for 10 years and was diagnosed with cancer. He remained in contact with his children throughout the years, but never again saw them in person, dying at 48. Deportations can happen to any non-citizen within the United States, including green card holders. Some Cambodians stick with permanent residency, feeling that their road to a green card was already hard enough, never gaining citizenship. I know quite a few actually.

Lowell, Massachusetts was a city staffing a city council of all-white members for almost its entire history. In January 2022 Sokhary Chau became the first Cambodian American mayor in the country. Chau along with two other Cambodians joined the city council as well as other minorities. Lowell had been a hotspot for Khmer immigrants since the mid-70s. One of my aunts had lived there. Cambodians make up almost a quarter of the population of Lowell and are the largest minority goup in the city.

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9/12 HW Part 2

The Donut King. August 24, 2020. Alice Gu. Hulu. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/the-donut-king/

‘Like becoming a refugee again’: They paid for their crimes. The US deported them anyway. August 17, 2023. Vivian Ho. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/17/cambodia-prison-sentence-deportation

In storied New England mill city, Cambodian Americans make political history. May 20, 2022. Don Lee. Los Angeles Times. https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-05-20/in-storied-new-england-mill-town-cambodian-americans-make-political-history

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9/12 HW Part 1

Final Topic: Cambodians in Wichita.

Working Title: From the Mekong to the Mississippi