Golden Venture

The documentary Golden Venture was filmed with the intent to use an infamous example of an attempt to smuggle Chinese immigrants into the United States in order to shed light on the lives of those immigrants and many like them, the reason they were escaping the country, the difficulties they faced throughout their journey, the consequences resulting from partaking in the voyage and the reaction of the American public and officials to the incident. The documentary follows a simple timeline structure, beginning with brief background stories of four specific passengers of the Golden Venture ship immigrants, details about the Golden Venture’s journey to America and the ship’s “arrival” by running aground by Breezy Point on June 6^th, 1993. The documentary then followed these four immigrants through jail, talked to the Americans who supported their plight for freedom and further followed their journeys in the United States or back in China until present day.

The movies got right to the point from the very start – I had never heard of this incident before and it grasped my attention when the frightening footage of people jumping off the ship in New York was played or the mug shots of certain snakeheads were shown and the entire crime scheme was discussed. At this point, the director had established a solid background story, and what followed were the emotional testimonies of the individual passengers and how they were dealing with the incidents going on around them. From the very beginning, the documentary was divided clearly into sections that were introduced by means of a picture and a title, and were thoroughly explained. In the end, however, it seemed that the director was leaning towards stirring negative feelings towards American immigration policy. Personally, I felt terrible after hearing of the futile hardships many of the ship’s passengers had to endure, only to be turned away in large groups.

The details mentioned throughout the movie were brutal, unfiltered and powerful, such as the government sterilizing passengers upon being deported back to China shortly after surviving the brutal voyage during which they starved, were abused and faced storms and unhealthy conditions. Additionally, the shocking details of how much each person spent on this life-threatening voyage and the incredible journey each had to make from China into Thailand silently hinted at how destitute conditions were in communist China at the time of the voyage. The film was a powerful concoction of stunning facts and emotional testimonies and was effective in its message.

Sentenced Home

The documentary Sentenced Home, tells the story of Cambodian refugees who escaped to America following the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge massacres in the 1980’s. It follows the stories of several of these immigrants who came to America as children and grew up with American culture and values, as well as the language. Now, as many of the refugees are being deported back to Cambodia, these immigrants, now young adults, are forced to prepare themselves to the possibility of having to leave their families behind in America and go to a homeland that is completely foreign to them in terms of language, culture and economy.

The documentary was formatted in an interesting way – the director was able to provide factual information throughout the beginning of the film and carry on into a personal and emotional perspective of what each of the three immigrants were going through. The director effectively raised awareness of the problem at hand – the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act which, in essence, forces the deportation of felon criminals who are non-citizens after being released from prison. The director provided a very opposing outlook on the law, highlighting three of the deportees’ struggles. Kim Ho Ma, after facing jail time for firing a gun in self-defense as a teen, was forced to leave his family and try to make it in Cambodia, where jobs are far and few in between. Loeun Lun was separated from his wife and children when deported. Many Uch, a man who organizes baseball leagues and opened a pool hall in order to keep Cambodian-American teens from going down the wrong path, is forced to wait, not knowing when he will be deported.

The use of these three examples was very powerful. I was infuriated by this policy, how U.S. officials don’t even take into consideration how each one of the refugees has made amends or settled down or impacted his community. It saddened me to see the struggles that each one of the Cambodians endured and made me question American policy to the extent that I researched it online after watching the documentary. Unlike the Golden Venture, the documentary didn’t end up on a positive note, which was an effective move by the director but was a bit heavy to process. Altogether however, Sentenced Home was powerful and informatory and focused on appealing to the audience emotionally.