[URBANTH-L]SUNTA video: "Weaving Bitter with the Sweet"

[bvergara at sfsu.edu]

Forwarded from Ann Ryerson (rynearsona at intlinst.org):

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Just as at AAA, most of the refugee panels seem to be scheduled against each
other at SfAA. At least it's consistent. Let me just point out to you a
documentary on refugees I produced which is likely to be overlooked (it is not
part of a SUNTA or CORI session and doesn't have the word "refugee" in its
title).  It is "Weaving Bitter with the Sweet" a 30 minute program which is
listed first in the session at 3:30-5:15 Saturday in the Cedar Boardroom.

Some of you may remember when I went to Laos over 10 years ago--we were the
first professional film crew to visit the outlying areas. Now the film is
finally finished. Come get a look at Lao refugees in St. Louis and the beautiful
villages they left behind in Laos.

Here's the abstract:

RYNEARSON, Ann (Internat'l Inst.) WEAVING BITTER WITH THE SWEET  Under
"heritage," many popular representations of refugees dramatically oversimplify
loss of homeland and adjustment to America. Mone Saenphimmachak, is a Lao
refugee tormented by survivor guilt. As she seeks to overcome sorrow by renewing
her people's beautiful weaving traditions, her art becomes a reminder of the
joys and griefs of past and present. In a surprise ending, Mone gives up her
looms, leaving viewers to re-examine assumptions about the meaning of heritage
for refugees. For Mone, each skirt represents both a quiet victory and its
subtle costs, a memory of lives ever-changing, the bitter lying always within
the sweet.