Urban Voices
Teenage refugees document their lives
By Calvin Liu

Spencer Nakasako’s idea is simple, even crude: Give camcorders to three teenage refugees from Southeast Asia and have them record their own lives over a year and half. The finished product is a wholly unique cinematic experience.

With, A.K.A. Don Bonus and Kelly Loves Tony, Nakasako offers his audience two gripping films about the brutal realities faced by his subjects as they question their cultural identities while struggling in low-income neighborhoods. Both films will show in Los Angeles next month.

A.K.A. Don Bonus is an Emmy Award-winning work that focuses on 18-year-old Sokly “Don Bonus” Ny, a Cambodian refugee who is struggling to graduate in his final year at San Francisco’s Galileo High School. Living in the Sunnydale housing projects, Ny commutes 45 minutes to school every day. After school, he returns home to an empty house, because his mother is staying with her boyfriend and his younger brother has possibly joined a gang and has not returned in the past three months.

We learn that Ny and his relatives, who live next door, are terrified of their neighborhood, particularly after the police leisurely arrive hours after Ny notifies them that rocks had been thrown through their window. Eventually, the family is robbed of everything—from furniture to clothes, even soy sauce. In the most poignant moment in the documentary, the audience watches as Ny’s helplessness evolves into frustration when he repeatedly reports the burglary and is greeted each time by an answering machine.

As the film progresses, Ny focuses on graduating from high school, despite his mounting loneliness. Ultimately, he passes his competency tests, but in a moment of candor admits he doesn’t deserve to graduate.

Whereas Ny has overcome extreme adversity simply to get through high school, 17-year-old Kelly Saeteurn’s story begins in Kelly Loves Tony with a hopeful future—she has graduated from high school with honors and dreams of attending college.

But soon we find out that Saeteurn, an Iu Mein refugee living in Oakland, has become pregnant by her fiance, Tony, a junior high school dropout with a criminal record. At this point, Saeteurn begins wrestling with conflicting roles as a mother and student, as a wife and daughter-in-law. Having moved in with Tony’s family, her in-laws demand that she behave as a traditional Iu Mein woman and drop her academic pursuits to take up motherhood.

Despite the pressures, Saeteurn continues her education at Laney College. Though it is obvious that she loves Tony, Saeteurn grows increasingly irritable as she finds that the their widening educational gap becomes a barrier for clear communication.

At times, it is obvious that both Saeteurn and her fiance, as well as Ny, feel uncomfortable recording their experiences onto film. The emotional impact of these documentaries transcends any stereotypes, bringing us toward an intimacy that may even be overwhelming for some viewers. But more important, both A.K.A. Don Bonus and Kelly Loves Tony provide insight into the psychological effects of being socially marginalized.

A.K.A. Don Bonus and Kelly Loves Tony will screen for one-week at the Laemmles Grande 4-Plex in Los Angeles beginning April 2. For more information, call 213-382-8022.