
Director, Far From Kawthoolei
Far From Kawthoolei explores the community that forms around the Karen family center in San Diego, California, and its self-help network of refugees from Burma (Myanmar). Multiple perspectives guide a story that offers a better understanding of the Karen diaspora and their relationship to history as they envision a future unbound from war or refuge. Refugees from Burma unite at the Karen Organization of San Diego, an ethnic community-based organization, to support the prosperity of a new generation born in the US who have not experienced the trauma of war crimes or the affinity of a people bonded to fight for self-determination. Far From Kawthoolei asks how Karen youth and their foreign-born refugee parents support one another’s integration into American society and reveals complexities in generational identities.