CAB shows documentary on Khmer Rouge genocide on Oct. 25

York College’s Campus Activities Board will show an award-winning documentary that explores the life of Socheata Poeuv, a Cambodian American who is a living survivor of the Khmer Rouge genocide, at 4 p.m., Oct. 25, in the Life Sciences Theater.  A panel discussion will follow the screening of “New Year Baby.” The event is open to the public free of charge.

In 2004, Poeuv started interviewing her family on videotape about their story of survival. What has evolved from her own personal journey is the creation of “New Year Baby,” a documentary film that helped her family heal. “New Year Baby” has won several awards, including Amnesty International’s “Movies That Matter” Award. A graduate from Smith College, Poeuv worked in network news for four years while co-founding Broken English Productions to direct the creation of her film.

Poeuv is the founder of Khmer Legacies, which has the goal of recording 10,000 testimonies of survivors of the Cambodian genocide by encouraging children to interview their parents. Relatively little documentation of the Khmer American experience exists. Parents and older generations are hesitant to remember and openly share their experiences because of the trauma of war, violence and genocide. Khmer Legacies aims to preserve and deepen understanding about the history of the Khmer Rouge from the perspective of survivors, bridge the generational divide between Cambodian parents and their children, and transform the culture of denial and avoidance in Cambodian communities.            

In 2007 Poeuv received the competitive Echoing Green Fellowship, which provides seed funding to start-up non-profit organizations. She is a Visiting Fellow at the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University.