  |
  |
   |
|
Death of a Shaman
Genre: Documentary Ethnicity: Thai American Themes: Culture (Religion), Family and Intergenerational Issues, Immigrant/Refugee Experience/Diaspora, Individual Profiles & Personal Stories Date: 2003 Running Time: 56 min. Director: Richard Hall Producer: Fahm Fong Seeyang Availability: For home viewing: KVIE Public Television Purchase (DVD & VHS): $24.95 Educational Copies: Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA) College/Institution: DVD or VHS $195 Purchase/$75 Rental K-12/Public Library/Community Group: DVD or VHS $125 Purchase/$40 Rental |
In Death of a Shaman, Fahm Saeyang responds to her father's unsettled life and death by taking a reverse journey to examine the heartbreaking path he took from respectability to hopelessness — and from Southeast Asia to America — in a heartfelt personal mission to understand his tragic story.
This dual journey helps Death of a Shaman examine with painful honesty how Fahm's Mien immigrant family suffered through a 20 year ordeal of poverty, racism, religions, drugs, jail, and the murder of a family member.
It is a chronicle of a darker side of the pursuit of the American dream that affected many of the 40,000 Mien who came from a primitive life in the mountains of Southeast Asia to America. Death of a Shaman is also a moving account of Fahm's need to understand her father's pain, and a desire to figure out what will placate his troubled spirit and her own. (Courtesy of the official Death of a Shaman website)
Evans, Will. "A personal journey: A filmmaker chronicles her Mien father’s path from dignity to decline — finding peace for herself and his spirit." Sacramento Bee. May 19, 2003.
Death of a Shaman
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/deathofashaman/
This dual journey helps Death of a Shaman examine with painful honesty how Fahm's Mien immigrant family suffered through a 20 year ordeal of poverty, racism, religions, drugs, jail, and the murder of a family member.
It is a chronicle of a darker side of the pursuit of the American dream that affected many of the 40,000 Mien who came from a primitive life in the mountains of Southeast Asia to America. Death of a Shaman is also a moving account of Fahm's need to understand her father's pain, and a desire to figure out what will placate his troubled spirit and her own. (Courtesy of the official Death of a Shaman website)
Evans, Will. "A personal journey: A filmmaker chronicles her Mien father’s path from dignity to decline — finding peace for herself and his spirit." Sacramento Bee. May 19, 2003.
Death of a Shaman
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/deathofashaman/
The official website for the film includes filmmaker bios, filmmaker Q&A, production gallery photos, and more.