A.K.A. Don Bonus is the first in Spencer Nakasako's Trilogy. The other two are Kelly Loves Tony and Refugee.
Here's more information and a student commentary on the film.
Sokly "Don Bonus" Ny
Spencer Nakasako with Sokly "Don Bonus" Ny
Also, here's an article on documentary films that's in line with the group presentation from yesterday's class.
15 comments:
I enjoyed A.K.A. Don Bonus mainly because it was effective in drawing me in emotionally. It is an interesting film in that it is a documentary that is hyper-narrative; rather than displaying various people, places, and things to push some argument or theme it is simply a real-time depiction of several weeks in a person’s life. Don Bonus doesn’t just make himself a character in the film; he is the film. The story is incredibly real because it is actually happening as the spectator watches. Rather than seeing representations of events in Don Bonus’s life, we actually see the events. This film is made that much more powerful because it does not need to draw on outside evidence to persuade viewers of its message. The actual real-time events it depicts are evidence enough to show just how unfair the conditions for Asian American refugees truly are.
A.K.A. Don Bonus was the first film that I did not try to think of a lesson that most of Asian American films are trying to give to their audiences. It, rather than telling a lesson, shows the actual, present situation that Don Bonus faces everyday as an Cambodian refugee. Most of movies we watched in class had some kind of common themes, such as finding a root or breaking a stereotype, however, A.K.A. Don Bonus does not try to tell or do something for audience. Its first person perspective makes the movie very self-reflective. Don Bonus' narration is very simple and dry, but it is also very powerful.
A.K.A. Don Bonus establishes a new way of documenting a person’s life. It is a very honest and realistic narrative in that it does not embellish any of the real-time events that are occurring throughout the film or inflate Don Bonus as a misfortunate protagonist. Because of the film’s truthful portrayal of the life of Don Bonus and the credibility that comes from having Don Bonus as a subject and a videomaker at the same time, the frustration and struggle that Don Bonus faces reach the audience more effectively from the first-person perspective, thus powerfully drawing emotion. However, if I were Don Bonus, I would feel “naked” by exposing my stories, my emotions, and what I and my family are going through. As the form of the film breaks the mold of what documenting a person’s life should be, Don Bonus is able to have a frank and liberal way for self-portrait.
Jungmin Lee
I thought the return journey portrayed in A.K.A. Don Bonus was the most different among the return journeys I have seen throughout the course, Wayne Wang’s "The Joy Luck Club" and Gail Dolgin and Vicente Franco’s "Daughter from Danang." A.K.A Don Bonus portrays a return journey so easily taken and accomplished without many hardships or obstacles compared to the other return journeys. Compared to June, from "The Joy Luck Club," who is very scared to meet her half-sisters Mike and his friends are mostly willing to find their families left behind. And compared to Heidi, from "Daughter from Danang," the boys communicate and appreciate their culturally different families a lot more. Moreover, among June, Heidi and Mike, I personally liked Mike the most as a character, but I feel like his story, without climax, does not have much strong impact as maybe other documentaries or return journeys had.
Jay Lee
AKA Don Bonus is an independent film taken all by Don Bonus. He is from Cambodia when he was little. His whole family moved to America for the better life because if they were in Cambodia they might have been killed. Now they are living in a very dangerous and poor neighbor where crimes occur everyday. He is doing very poorly in school because of the hardships he needs to overcome everyday.
This film is very interesting in many ways because it shows a lifestyle of a person who is living in a very dangerous neighbor. It clearly differs from the neighborhood that I am living in. What was surprising from the film was that police officers are careless in his city. They are ignorant because they seemed are not willing to help the citizens. When Bonus makes a call for help, the officers did not come. Whereas in Champaign, it seems that we have better safety systems. What was shocking in the film was that he said he is scared to go outside because he might be threatened or insulted by the people outside. Moreover, people vandalize houses almost everyday. One thing Bonus says constantly is that he wants to get out of that place.
He finally moved to a new place where things are better. This seemed like a great transition from the harsh life to a better life. He no longer had to hide from the strangers. School was closer in T.O., which he refers to his new neighbor. This film was very interesting because it clearly contrasts the sad and harsh life to happy and energetic life.
Seung W Lim
I really liked how this film didn't seem preachy at all. It just seemed very honest, so any messages about institutional racism were left up to us viewers to decide on our one. It's interesting/sad to look at how US military actions are tied to Don Bonus's family coming to the US in the first place and how political factors in the US continue to screw over the refugees.
Feng’s essay, Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video, regarding perspective in Wang’s a.k.a. Don Bonus was very thought provoking. After reading through the article, I developed a much stronger appreciation of the role of perspective and the difficulty of manipulating it within film. While the documentary paints a fairly dismal look at Bonus/ Sokly Ny’s life, Wang and Nakasako effectively returns agency to this restricted and repressed student by using such strong cinematic strategies (perhaps most importantly, as Fan points out, the instrumental irony). Despite Bonus’ story being a highly under documented narrative within American society, Feng (and I) both feel that Wang quite effectively presented this material without victimizing, commericializing, or exploiting the subject whatsoever. I truly respect and am empowered by this work, especially as I take Fan’s analysis and apply it to a much more broad topic of AAS and APA representation in the media. Comparing this documentary and such films as Joy Luck Club (which is ironically directed by the same director) and even The Namesake, it is clear that the real life story does not reflect what we see in the movies. Characters are consistently stripped of their strength as an individual, and while I understand that Hollywood films are almost required to be embellished, contrasting such ridiculous portrayals (like the ones seen in The Joy Luck Club) with the gritty and unfortunately very real depictions in Don Bonus really speaks to just how racist and political the movie industry really is. I was really struck just how intuitive, eloquent, and almost poetic Bonus was. For instance, in the scene where he leaves the party and cries in the car was, in my opinion, the most moving scene of the film. Throughout the documentary, Bonus maintains this almost cool, very chill kind of demeanour. However, during that scene, we were truly able to see just how devastating systematic repression can be on an individual. I'm very curious to see where Don Bonus is now!
Stephanie Chang
I thought that AKA Don Bonus was an interesting film. The film showed the hardships of a minority living in America, and the importance of the family bond. It was depressing to see Ny missing his mom and dad, and it was really sad to see how his father sacrificed everything for them, yet he was being forgotten. Ny’s family seemed very isolated and no one really cared about each other. I believe that Ny and Touch acted out the way they did because they didn’t get any attention and/or love from their family. It was a little ironic how the entire family came together when Touch was sent to Pittsburgh (Or Pennsylvania?), because after losing a member of their family, they were able to realize the importance of their family relationship and their existence.
Alice Cho
A.K.A. Don Bonus was a very enjoyable film. I really liked the way that it solely focuses on his life, following him through high school and his everyday activities. By doing it this way, it really personalizes the experience as you’re seeing what is happening through his eyes. Unlike other documentaries trying to tell a story or a Hollywood film, by filming it the way he does, he is simply a boy trying to live life day to day living through his joy and feeling his sadness and worries.
This documentary shows the counter argument to the stereotype of Asian Americans as model minorities. This is important because it shows the diversity of the categorization of “Asian”. For example, there is a drastic difference between highly skilled East Asian immigrants who came for employment versus others who immigrated as refugees. So, the model minority image does not apply towards Southeast Asian refugees. One part of this stereotype is that Asian Americans are docile. There were several counter examples. When someone threw a rock, breaking Sokly’s window, Sokly said that most people do not call the cops because of fear of retaliation, but Sokly did it anyways because he knew it was the right thing to do. Also, Sokly was not a good student. He acknowledged this when he said that expressed that he could’ve been a better student by not cutting class.
-Wing Chan
A.K.A. Don Bonus was very powerful in showing the condition of Don Bonus's life and evoking empathy from the viewer. For me, I felt a lot of empathy for Don Bonus for the reasons that; he struggles in school, and he has problems at home(bad neighborhood, neglecting mother, run-away brother). As said by some other classmates, Don Bonus is not the model minority. In fact, Don Bonus's academic life was a struggle, likely because of the kind of surroundings he grew up in.
Interestingly, I think what makes A.K.A. Don Bonus so powerful is the disparity between Don Bonus and the viewer. Most of us are relatively privileged, at the very least, we are all students at UIUC; for Don Bonus and his friends, they would watch/look back on this movie and think, "thats just the way our lives were." I think this movie is extremely powerful in capturing what it feels like for Don Bonus to live as an under-privileged minority in the "projects." More than anything, this movie is incredible for being so "real."
Its interesting to watch movies like this and The Fall of The I-Hotel, because they show a different demographic of Asian American people than the other film-viewings in class. The economic demographic of these people in A.K.A. Don Bonus and The Fall of The I-Hotel are poor, under-privileged, and marginalized peoples. I think the opportunities/useful applications of these films as social commentary is to show that "Asian American," isn't a homogeneous identity; not only does it encompass multiple nationalities, "ethnicities," and races but these people exist on different levels of comfort and American opportunity. In short, being Asian-American does not grant one the automatic status of model minority.
sorry.. just one more thought:
So, I was thinking about Don Bonus's condition and how he grew up in what was basically the "projects," and the problems he had at home(his brother's criminal record, his family problems). I think that the message of producing a movie like this, and making it as popular as it is, is to make people understand that poverty has an effect on one's future, and that impoverished people are more likely to fall victim to gang-activity and have trouble with academics/schooling.
I know its kind of an overtly obvious thing to point out, but I think that this movie is important in showing the relationship between minorities and poverty. I think that there is a common notion that minorities tend to be more likely to have "criminal" problems or tend to not do well in school.. and Don Bonus shows us that his home life and the place he grows up plays such a big part in the opportunities given to him. I think that this movie shows how poverty creates people who have to resort to criminal activity and that it also distracts them from upward mobility. This "impoverished lifestyle," is not a result of peoples' cultures, it is the fact that they are marginalized.
A.K.A Don Bonus is a raw, engaging video diary of an 18-year-old Cambodian refugee living in poverty in San Francisco. What makes this film different than other documentaries is that it creates an honest, gripping, and very personal video self-portrait of the protagonist, which gives the audience a direct inside look into his life dealing with poverty and unfair social treatment. The video diary is more like a self-expression outlet for the protagonist himself rather than a way to ask for sympathy from the audience. However, it is through this raw presentation that the audience is more emotionally appealed to their life of struggles. What impressed me most was the scene that Don Bonus’s relative Touch rapped the “reality” and US government. The refugees escaped from the civil wars and came all the way to United States with their American dreams, only to find tough life divided along class and race lines and the according unfair social treatment. The young adults and teenagers have no way to fight back and almost become self-degraded, which takes them into a vicious cycle. And through this documentary, we should know that the film not only presents the poor life condition of the refugees but it indicates further social and political problems that exist in the social system.
Spencer Nakasako and Sokly Ny present issues of modern day Asian American youths in a totally different and unconventional perspective than what we have seen so far in the class. The way the documentary was filmed brings the issues to life because the story is told from a first person perspective. I believe the method used to make this film was more effective in telling the story and getting the point across for the viewers. Using Ny to narrate and film his own life story makes the substance of the documentary more obvious and I believe evokes more emotion from the audience. I also liked how Nakasako and Ny showed a different side of Asian Americans; in films we usually see the stereotypes such as the model minority, or tiger moms, but we never see this side. The struggles and issues Asian American youths go through due to the difficulties in obtaining the American dream.
Djoanna Ramos
Does anyone know what this filmmaker is up to today? How did things turn out for his brother? I want to know the part 2 now that so much time has passed.
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