AVAILABLE FOR SALE SOON! This educational package includes a two-disc set (director's cut and 57 minute classroom version.) For home video usage, please see "New Year's Baby-Director's Cut".
Born in a Thai refugee camp on Cambodian New Year, filmmaker Socheata Poeuv grew up in the United States deemed by her family “the lucky one.” As a child in the United States, she knew that her parents had survived oppression and genocide under the Khmer Rouge, but they never spoke of it aloud.
Twenty-five years later in the suburbs of Texas, her parents make a startling admission, and the impact of the Khmer Rouge suddenly becomes very real. Impelled to confront and give human face to her childhood shadows, Socheata travels to Cambodia to unravel the mystery shrouding her family’s survival and eventual escape. Her voyage parallels her family’s emotional journey through a series of revelations: unimaginable sacrifice; promises made and kept; the fierce and solemn love for those who were left behind, and finally, one long unsung hero, a “Cambodian cowboy,” is unveiled.
With disarming candor, humor and poetic animation Poeuv’s debut feature resurrects memory and personal history to reclaim her family’s past. Winner of both audience and best documentary awards across the United States, NEW YEAR BABY is a testament to extraordinary bravery, and the love that binds a family together.
Refusing to allow this national tragedy to be erased from the memory of new generations, NEW YEAR BABY gives a voice to both familial memories and Cambodia's history, challenging the Khmer Rouge principle, "If you preserve secrecy, half the battle is won."
