The life of a political refugee escaping communism in Laos and then coming to the US only to get trapped in gangs is told in the documentary The Betrayal by Thavisouk Phrasavath.
The Prime Time Emmy winner and Academy Award nominated producer brought his film to the University of Connecticut campus, reports the Daily Campus.
In his film, Phrasavath recalls living in a war zone with bombs and warplanes.
He remembers a CIA financed government and guerrilla group. Then in 1975 after the US left the country, he witnessed the military regime fall into the hands of the Pathet Lao, a communist nationalist group.
Phrasavath says his family escaped the country and experienced complete culture shock in the United States. His family found it really hard to integrate as they experienced prejudice for the first time.
“People called you names, they spat at you, you needed a group … being Asian in the 80s was really oblivious, the public didn’t differentiate,” Phrasavath explained when asked if he was part of a gang.
Phrasavath described his “gang” as just a group of non-violent friends looking out for each other. But his half brother fell into a different group, the bloods, and was killed in a dispute with another member.
You can read student reaction to Betrayal and about how the Undergraduate Student Government, Pi Delta Psi and the Laotian and Thai Student Association brought The Betrayal to campus in the Daily Campus.
