My Asian Americana by Anida Yoeu Ali for White House AAPI "What's Your Story?"

WE ARE FINALISTS!! We want to go to The White House and present this video to the president as part of White House AAPI Video Contest. PLEASE VOTE!! (http://www.whitehouse.gov/aapi/whats-your-story)

There is no legal review required in these "criminal alien" deportation procedures. No appeal.
( http://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/0-0-0-1/0-0-0-29/0-0-0-5959.html )

I once met a guy who was shipped out here for DUI, leaving his two teen daughters, 12 and 14 yrs old, fatherless in California. After coming out of prison, another guy started a straight life and had a small business in Philly, eventually having a happy marriage and 5 beautiful kids, only to be picked up one day and get shipped out here. What impact will this have to their children? Will they become productive members of the society or angry resentful youths who do not give a damn?

We believe this trend is accelerated to meet quotas for "tough-on-this" politics. The format closely resembles the convention of purging, where the "undesirable characters" are removed on behalf of good citizens like you and me. Who will fight for them after all? The secret to success lies in anonymization of these individuals and their stories.

That is why we made this video for this contest, to bring back the real human faces to them. These people are human beings, who made bad choices and selfish decisions at one point in their lives, very often in their mid-teens. But who wasn't a fool when you were fifteen?

When we remove and incarcerate the "undesirables" from society without legal reviews, we are taking a dangerous giant step towards the kind of nation America supposedly has stood against. Let's not allow this to go on.

Let's demand a thorough legal and humanitarian review process to be incorporated in the "criminal alien" deportation procedure. Let's not destroy families. Let's not ruin people who have paid the price, grown up and gone straight. Let's also reconsider this vigilantism trend where fifteen years old kids get tried as adults and sentenced to life-in-prison everyday somewhere in the U.S. And we think they deserve it all, because we are too busy to know who they really are.

In the meantime, lots of your tax money gets siphoned to make this incarceration machinery moving, while budgets get cut form services such as education. As a result, America gets weaker and weaker.

Please post your comment and forward the link. Please urge The White House Initiative on AAPI to take a critical look at the issue of deportations.

A group of Asian Americans gather in Phnom Penh, Cambodia to share favorite memories of their Americana. Featuring Kosal Khiev with Anida Yoeu ALI, Sokha CHHIM, Vinh DAO, Phyrak KHUN, Ryan TONG, Vanna SANN, and Thea SOM. (copyright 2011 © Studio Revolt)

A Studio Revolt project: http://Studio-Revolt.com/
For more info on deportation visit Kosal's website: http://SpokenKosal.com/
Music by eKHlectic Records: http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ekhlectic

Video "Why I Write": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YstoXrrz1Gs

Video "Cambodian Returnee's Orientation by Thea Som": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5L72ogvPZw&feature=player_embedded

**
Produced and Directed by Anida Yoeu ALI
Filmed and Edited by Masahiro SUGANO
Music Produced by Phanna NAM a.k.a. 'Peanut' e-mail: phanna.nam[at]gmail.com
Lyrics and Song by Sokha CHHIM a.k.a. 'Dollah'
Coordinator: Thea SOM
Production Assistant: Phyrak KHUN
**
Movements begin with the telling of untold stories.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Immigration
• deportation
• deportee
• returnee
• kosal khiev
• anida yoeu ali
• masahiro sugano
• white house video challenge
• asian american
• b-boy peanut
• dollah
• cambodia
• phnom penh
• what's your story?
• khmer exiled american
• exile
• spoken word
• education
• juvenile intervention
• social issue
• aapi
• white house
• thea som
• returnee's orientation

[srang89]

This is sad , brought tears to my eyes. My brother got deported in Jan 2012 , i wish he can come back home to us. Our family isn't the same anymore, but i am happy u guys made this video. I love it! Stay strong & keep your head up Hopefully, a miracle happens! :)

[studiorevolt]

@srang89 Thanks, Srang89. All deportations happen without legal review currently. We want the court to look at each case of deportation as seriously as a life sentence, because deportation is a life sentence. We believe that is a change that can and should be implemented in the near future. Another thing is a request for visitation rights/visas for the exiles. Short of miracle, these can happen. So let's make it happen.

[hoolesification]

i really appreciate how much of a loving vignette it is -- of daily life, of struggling to get by, of sublime memories. yet you don't know who is exiled or ex-pat until the end. oh the sadness i felt for those who couldn't return. the film is very effective and poetic and powerful and profound. thank you!! ♥

[studiorevolt]

@hoolesification Thank you for the support. Please go to the White House web page posted in the above information and vote. Please share it with your FB friends and encourage them to vote as well. Thnx

[WicCedOboY]

LOVE THIS!!! U GUYS ROCK!!! MY ASIAN-AMERICANS!!! RICESIDE CONNECTED!!!

[studiorevolt]

@WicCedOboY Thank you sir!! Please go to the White House website listed in the video information above and vote. Please spread the word as well. Best.

[ricep1cker]

@ShutUpDamYou Some people get deported without doing crimes. Some U.S. citizens who accidentally get deported because of errors in the U.S. database.

I would ask you to consider the family situation and reasons why they are in America. After years of Secret American Bombing of Cambodia, suffering genocide at the hands of Khmer Rouge, escaping to live in refugee camps and then transplanted to the roughest neighborhoods in America. Where's the Justice? Who was sent to jail for Bombing Cambodia?

[ShutUpDamYou]

YA'LL STUPID PEOPLE DESERVE TO GET DEPORTED. I NEVER GET DEPORTED CAUSE I DIDN'T DO CRIME LIKE YA IDIOTS!

[eelyhe]

what a great video - and at the same time, what a great opportunity KEAs have to participate in the post-genocide reconciliation and peacebuilding process to be had in Cambodia! my friend Karen shared with me your project and i voted for your video =) God bless

[TheGrasshoppa09]

@nflplayerad1 the woman "can go home."

[TheUnituber]

@studiorevolt, unfortunate as it is and seems, Kampuchea needs you! And your education, and your understanding, and your stance on combating corruption in the system... I hope you'll be able to use what you have learned and brought back with you, to make your new home more like your old. I've lived and worked in KH, for many years now, and hope to see more help from the inside out, fixing what's still recovering from hundreds of years of some of the worst history on the planet...

[chysila]

Great Video

[Alt0233]

I hope you can make it home one day.