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New Year Baby
It was suggested to me by a very close friend (my best friend, in fact) that I attempt to pick up a copy of New Year Baby to watch after she had seen it a few days ago on her local PBS. Because it’s summer and I have little else in the way to do other than to read and watch documentaries (at least till I find some volunteerships to put under my belt), I took her up on that offer. Amazon offers this film up for rental for $3, so I sat down (yes, at 1 a.m.) and prepared to get a-watching. She had told me the vague details about this film so I knew what I was expecting, or so I thought.
This documentary, at a few different points, moved me hastily to tears. It seems a bit melodramatic to say so, but this is a very intimate and moving take on documentary film-making. Oftentimes, and unfortunately, I find that documentary films tend to take a somewhat detached view of the tale they’re attempting to weave for the viewer. New Year Baby takes the exact opposite course and plunges you right into the heartache of her family’s experiences under the Khmer Rouge. It is very clear to anyone that this film is a labor of love, no matter how heart-wrenching.
The most important thing for me, is that New Year Baby also shines a very important light on the Cambodian Genocide, something that we in the West tend to overlook except for less-than-lucid references to Pol Pot and the Killing Fields. There’s a bit of a debate in contemporary society as welll, when it comes to determining whether or not the ~2 mil. deaths during the Khmer Rouge’s reign truly constituted genocide in the strict definition of the term. Perhaps because I’ve always been one to not care about “strict definitions” of anything, I’d long since decided that it was genocide in my definition of the word rather than that of the General Assembly’s. In this way, I feel that there’s too much concern on the definition of the tragedy v. that of the scope of it.
New Year Baby sets a wonderful precedent by reminding us of the latter. But it tells another tale that we are seeing repeated in other cases as well. As an example: the juggernaut of genocide – the Holocaust obviously – falls into the pitfalls of both of these definitions. It is a genocide by the strictest definition of the word, but that label also brings problems tied to the melancholy of the event. The tales of the survivors eventually being overridden with sentimental tales of later years that solely strip away the significance of the event. In modern times, via various methods, the Holocaust has become a commercial and profitable interest and venture for those of us who were unable to experience it. Furthermore, with all these tales of triumph – both fictional and not – it casts the reality of the crimes against humanity in an decreasingly illuminated light. And this allows for the dehumanizing of the perpetrators of the event (alive or dead being irrelevant) that allows a forgetting of sorts to take place. In some regards it seems hard to believe, but once you dive into the depths you begin to see the details emerging.
This is not exclusive to the Holocaust, either. This collective forgetting is a common tale woven in cases of genocide. And it’s one you see in New Year Baby despite the “Cambodian Genocide” not receiving official recognition. The most blatant of these cases being when Socheata goes and interviews various cadres of the Khmer Rouge and asking them about their time during the regime. Both of them feign, perhaps legitimately express in some form, a sense of apathetic regret. That they are sorry the events had taken place, but that they have done all they can do, and that no, their conscious is not burdened. The importance of their words is only recognized, however, when it becomes apparent that they’ve forgotten much of what they’d done as members in the regime. They don’t remember their actions, which of course allows for an easy escape from them. The latter cadre even mentions at some point that he hoped there would be a trial. Not because he believes there’s an innate need for outrage in regards to the Khmer Rouge’s tyranny, but rather because he has simply forgotten all that they had done.
This is echoed elsewhere in the film when Socheata and her father visit the grave of her “sisters’” mother, one amongst the millions of unmarked and unremembered dead. Yet later, when she visits the grave of Pol Pot, it is an elaborate shrine with reminders to keep the grave “pristine” because of its historical importance. Why is Pol Pot of any importance? Or rather, why is he of more importance that those whom he killed under his ideology and metaphorical entity of the Party, Angkar? This is a question the film doesn’t answer nor attempt to, but it leaves you wondering the details.
There’s a lot about New Year Baby I want to talk about as far as the film’s plot goes, but I feel by doing that it will ruin the importance and the impact this film will have on the viewer who sees it. For this reason, I really and truly urge you to rent or pick up a copy. It is fairly affordable and worth a watch. It is somewhat dated in some regards, thankfully, as several members of the Khmer Rouge are now being tried for war crimes. After watching this film, that is very welcome news. Irregardless, this film will hopefully pique your interest in the Khmer Rouge and hopefully urge you to prevent genocide anywhere it can happen. Genocide is oftentimes regarded as the crime of the 20th century (though, certainly, it is a hardly new phenomena) but with vigilance we can hopefully prevent it from staining this new century with its crimes against humanity.
In conclusion, readers: shalom. Until next time.:)
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