During the late 1970s, approximately two million Cambodians died as a result of political executions, starvation, and forced labor under the rule of the Khmer Rouge political party.

Because of the trauma of war, violence, and genocide, many survivors have been reluctant to share their experiences. Socheata Poeuv, an activist and filmmaker, is working to change that.

Poeuv will be at Gannon University Monday, Oct. 26 for a showing and discussion of her documentary, New Year Baby. The event is free and open to the public and will begin at 6:30 p.m. in room 104 of the University’s Zurn Science Center, 143 West 7th St.

Her visit is sponsored by the Gannon University Activities Programming Board. For more information on the event, contact the APB at 814-871-7766.

Poeuv was born on the Cambodian New Year in a Thai refugee camp, and after her family immigrated to the United States, she grew up in Dallas, Texas. Her parents refused to discuss, until Poeuv was an adult, the war or their lives under the Khmer Rouge regime.

For Poeuv, her parents’ subsequent revelations – including that her mother’s first husband and daughter died during the genocide – raised more questions than they answered, and she decided to return to Cambodia with family members. New Year Baby documents their story of survival and healing.

Khmer Legacies, the organization she founded, has a goal of recording 10,000 testimonies of survivors of the Cambodian genocide by encouraging children to interview their parents. Khmer Legacies aims to preserve and deepen understanding about the history of the Khmer Rouge from the perspective of survivors, bridge the generational divide between Cambodian parents and their children, and transform the culture of denial and avoidance in Cambodian communities.

Poeuv is a visiting fellow at the Genocide Studies Program at Yale University.