Exiles and ex-pats unite as a community to present images of an Americana they left behind. One half live outside the US by choice while the other half has been forcibly returned. All are Americans. Each raised with the memories, mannerisms, and a distinct cultural identity of growing up Asian in America. This piece is both a short film and a PSA to remind the public of untold stories about Asian Americans ordered into exile. These are the narratives of Cambodian Americans impacted by US deportation policies.

STUDIO REVOLT’S STATEMENT OF INTENT: Deportations are an easy solution to deal with the “unwanted”. Deportations operate as additional punishment for people who have already served their time, often mistakes made in their youth. Deportations create more traumas within an already scarred refugee community by severing relationships and breaking up families.

Current immigration laws are the most anti-immigrant in all of U.S. history. Although U.S. laws and policies may appear “effective” for the administration in power, history has proven that the same laws and policies were often created out of fear and discrimination (i.e Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Angel Island detention center, Anti-Miscegenation laws, Japanese Internment Camps). Is deportation going to be the policy that the U.S. will have to apologize for 40 years from now? We know it is a risk to take a stance especially against our own government’s policies. But that is the precise definition of democracy. “We the people” get to be part of a fair and just government, and system that is suppose to work for all people, even the “unwanted” group of forgotten voices —the refugees, addicts, ex-convicts, gang members? People who are also fathers, brothers, sons, daughters and mothers. And yes, these are narratives that are not so pretty, not so clean or simple to tell.

MY ASIAN AMERICANA is a short film that tells the untold stories of Cambodian American deportees, an issue we feel pokes at our democracy because in this case, justice has failed for the nearly 400 Cambodian Americans unjustly deported to a country they’ve never been, separated from the American lives and family they must permanently leave behind.

We made this film as a community of people concerned with justice and invisibility because the issue of deportation is not just as Asian American issue but an American issue. As Asian Americans, it is our obligation to never forget our histories nor remain silent in the face of adversity. As Americans we grew up believing justice is for all.