Screening raises a ruckus

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Michael Cho sparked heated discussion in the University Student Union Thursday with a documentary that addressed the association between killing pets for food and the Cambodian community.

Cho's film, "Animal Appetites" angered several students of Asian descent, with one needing to be restrained.

About 30 people attended the screening, in which the Cornell University graduate presented two of his films in the first of a continuing series featuring contemporary Asian Pacific American video artists and filmmakers sponsored by the Asian Pacific Council.

It was "Animal Appetites" that caused the most heated reactions. Time for discussion, between the two films and after, raised issues of racial stereotypes and the diversity of cultures.

"I've shown that film many times before but this is the most extreme of reactions I've received," said Cho. "But they aren't unexpected responses, especially from the Cambodian community."

Cho based the film on the 1987 case of two Cambodian immigrants who were arrested in California for killing their dog for food.

But in 1989 the charges were dropped by a Long Beach municipal judge who ruled the puppy was killed by the acceptable practices of killing livestock. The case led the California State Assembly to enact a state law that prohibits the consumption of all pet animals for eating.

Many Cambodian students accused the film of reinforcing negative stereotypes about Asians. "That one incident in 1987 was just one time, it doesn't reflect the whole Cambodian community," said Heng Ath, 26, health science major.

"Those people who ate that dog aren't like the Cambodians who live here in the states," said Thai Vun, 26, business major. Cho stressed that everything is relative. He said there are many cultures and people who bring parts of themselves from their countries.

"Because of the changing faces in the U.S., what does it mean to be Americanized anyway?" asked Cho. "Who sets the rules? " Cho's second film, "Another America," took an in-depth look at Korean immigrant businesses in African American communities.

Memories of his uncle, who was robbed and killed while tending to his own shop, as well as the 1992 riots in Los Angeles, concluded the film.

Shou Fay Mo, chairman of the APC, said the overall presentation is "not just all debate, but a facility of intellectual discourse."