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Showing posts from September, 2019

Disturbed in Their Nests Impressions

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I haven't finished Disturbed in Their Nests yet, but I'm really enjoying this book! Alepho's look at the world is fascinating, as well as how this book was written. From what I know, Disturbed in their Nests is a sequel of sorts to They Poured Fire on Us From the Sky, another book written in part by Alepho Deng, covering his adaptation to San Diego. This is something I haven't seen before: in books that covered relocation such as Never Fall Down and First they Killed my Father , albeit in different conditions, talk little about life in America and its contrast to Cambodia. Disturbed in their Nests discusses thoroughly the perspective of a refugee or a foreigner, more broadly, and their adaptation to a new life in San Diego. This is something I felt was missing from other global-oriented books to read, not just the details of a struggle for survival, but the struggle for adaptation. Another interesting narrative choice taken by Alepho and Judy Bernstein was the cho

Brave Girl Rising Reflection

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Attending the screening of Brave Girl Rising was truly a distinct experience from the other GIP events I've attended, including Kalyanee Mam's screening of her documentary. Martha Adams described her efforts to create a film as something different from a documentary, and after watching her film, I certainly agree with her. Brave Girl Rising is framed through poetry and through visuals, the latter of which may not be as immediately apparent.                   I found it an interesting creative decision to use a verbal medium to describe visuals, but I can see the value behind the poetic language used to describe the setting and the experiences of Nasro, the focus of the film. As someone interested in art and by extension how it's used in the story-telling process, I paid attention to the environment that Brave Girl Rising was filmed in, which I remember being described in text as "not quite beautiful," yet I feel that creative efforts were taken to capture the