Southeast Asian Migration

This collection of FREE shorts tells the varied stories of Southeast Asian Americans whose identities stem from their refugee status and one film about the current Karenni refugee crisis in Thailand.

Filmmakers are expected to be in attendance.

Float
Director: Tristan Seniuk, Tristan Seniuk |
24 mins | USA
Set in mid 1990s Seattle, Cambodian-American hustler Rocky Mang spends his days cruising the streets slanging cheap goods on the corner as he struggles to help his family make ends meet. His days are a hazy wash of grinding and hustling, only broken by his persistent attempts to convince a local barista named Jenni-Mo Day to go on a date.

Worth
Director: Vokee Lee | 15 mins | USA
Based on a true story from 1982, a teenage Hmong refugee boy named Pao struggles to adopt the American lifestyle as he faces racism and bullying in high school.

Kim: #justB courageous
Director: Philippa Wharton | 3 mins | USA
Kim’s story is a loving tribute to her father, who died of liver cancer caused by hepatitis B. She wonders whether the stigma about hepatitis B in the Vietnamese community prevented him from telling the family and seeking medical care earlier and suggests that access to culturally and linguistically appropriate resources could have prevented his death.

Like We Don’t Exist
Director: Ansley Sawyer, Corey Embring | 30 mins | Myanmar, Thailand, USA
A short documentary about the ongoing ethnic violence and mass displacement of a minority called the Karenni between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma). After 70 years of civil war – the Karenni face an uncertain future today as a refugee community surviving along the Thailand-Myanmar border.