RI PBS Documentary Showcases Local Hmong Families
Tuesday, August 09, 2011
Understand where we live and how we got here by tuning into a new WSBE documentary next weekend.
On Saturday, August 13 at 7pm, the documentary, Better Places: The Hmong of Providence a Generation Later, debuts on WSBE Rhode Island PBS as part of the series, Rhode Island Stories.
Better Places: The Hmong of Providence a Generation Later is the sequel to The Best Place to Live, a 1981 documentary about the early resettlement of the Hmong community in Providence, Rhode Island. Better Places, which was shot over five years, features vivid footage of the daily lives, ceremonies, and ongoing relationships of Hmong Americans from one small city. The 52-minute film will replay on Sunday, August 14 at 11pm and it will air on Wednesday, August 17 at 10pm on WSBE Learn.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"The Hmong people are our neighbors"
“Rhode Islanders should watch this film as the Hmong people are their neighbors and come from a past that is completely connected to our war history of the 1960's and 1970's,” said Peter O’Neil, Better Places producer and RISD Professor. “Any American veteran from this time would be completely involved and interested in this story,” said O’Neil, “as should any citizen interested in how the past affects the present.”
Filmmakers Louisa Schein and Peter O'Neill with Pao Yang, President of the Hmong United Association of RI
Picking up the story a generation later
The Hmong in the original documentary came as refugees from Southeast Asia, where they had fought alongside the United States during the Vietnam War. RISD filmmaker Peter O'Neill and Rutgers University anthropologist Louisa Schein pick up the story 25 years later, pursuing longtime friendships to take a look at what has become of the families they had documented a generation earlier.
“We were focused on the continuing efforts of the four families to improve their lives since their early days in the United States, said O’Neil. “The best experience was re-connecting with people we had known in an earlier time, and renewing friendships and familiarity and getting to know their children.”
Weddings & funerals
The film incorporates footage from the 1981 film revealing dramatic changes for both individuals and for Rhode Island life. Scenes of weddings and funerals, gardens and farms, sprawling landscapes and South Providence interiors come together in a panorama of changing Hmong experiences.
"The comparison between the early days of their settlement in Rhode Island and their current lives - told primarily by the participants themselves - provides unique perspectives about what 'home' means to them," said Chia YouYee Vang, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Associate Professor of History.
“I feel the best part of the film is the return to Laos,” said O’Neil. “Since the late 1990's Hmong-Americans have legally been able to re-visit Laos, and we show numerous scenes of that return, including scenes of Laotian Hmong marrying American Hmong.”
“Each story is like a different thread that weaves a rich, colorful tapestry of our state,” said Piccerelli.
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