Born in a Thai refugee camp on Cambodian New Year, filmmaker Socheata Poeuv grew up in the United States never knowing that her family had survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. In NEW YEAR BABY, she embarks on a journey to Cambodia in search of the truth and why her family’s history had been buried in secrecy for so long.

After the screening, we will have a community discussion facilitated by Kunthary Thai-Johnson, director of the pre-collegiate program of 500+ students from the seven Boston Public High Schools at UMass Boston.

Kunthary’s bio is below:
I am one of nine children born in Cambodia during the war and live through the Khmer Rouge Regime. When I was seven years old, my family was one of the thousands who secretly fled Cambodia in order to escape the Khmer Rouge. We spent about five years moving from one refugee camp to the next, while waiting for a country of the Western world to take us in. Finally, a Lutheran Church in the small town of Ephrata, Pennsylvania sponsored us in 1984. I was 13 year old when we arrived in the US and did not know a word of English, nor was I exposed to American traditions and cultures. I had to learn English for my own survival as well as that of my family.

Many Thanks to the CoSponsors of this Event