About the Documentary

Putting a human face on controversial immigration policy, Sentenced Home follows three young Cambodian Americans through the deportation process. Raised in inner city Seattle, they pay an unbearable price for mistakes they made as teenagers. Caught between their tragic pasts and an uncertain future, each young man confronts a legal system that offers no second chances.

As part of a large group of Cambodian refugees admitted to the U.S. in the early 1980s, the deportees and their families found asylum in Seattle’s grim public housing projects and hoped for a piece of the American dream. But, as “permanent residents,” the refugees were not afforded the same protections as American citizens. Under strict anti-terrorism legislation enacted in 1996, even minor convictions can result in automatic deportation. For some, this means being permanently separated from families and homes because of a minor offense—such as the case of Loeun Lun, who fired a gun in the air as a teenager to protect himself from a gang attack.

Told through interweaving stories, in the voices of the deportees, their families and friends, Sentenced Home explores what it’s like to be deported along with the social, historical and political reasons behind the deportees’ fate. Along with family man Loeun Lun, who fights to stay together with his wife and children from behind bars and across oceans, audiences will meet former gang member Kim Ho Ma, who struggles to come to terms with his identity in a country he doesn’t understand. Also introduced is an introspective Many Uch, who looks to redeem himself by taking advantage of what time he has left in the U.S. to give today’s Cambodian American youth something he never had—the ability to play little-league baseball.

Sentenced Home follows Lun and Kim Ho Ma all the way to Cambodia. There Lun begins building a tiny shack for himself amidst rice paddies, while Kim Ho tries to contain his anger and frustration at U.S. immigration law, and the lack of opportunity in the city of Phnom Penh.

Meanwhile, as Many Uch leads his baseball team, inspiring members of the Seattle community to re-think their negative opinions of the deportees, his own deportation status hangs in the balance of an unblinking legal system increasingly deemed unfair.

The Filmmakers

Nicole Newnham
Nicole Newnham is a documentary filmmaker and writer living in San Francisco. She recently worked on the National Geographic/PBS special Skin, producing a story about the Cambodian community in Boston, where she first learned of the deportees’ plight. Newnham co-produced They Drew Fire, a widely acclaimed feature documentary for PBS about the combat artists of World War II, and co-wrote the companion book, which is distributed by Harper Collins. Her film Unforgettable Face, about a Japanese American soldier present at the liberation of Dachau, and one of the survivors he helped to liberate, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. She produced stories about the changing nature of the American workplace for the currently running PBS series, Livelyhood, and has made over 25 “field pieces” about California farmers, artists and food purveyors for Martha Stewart Living. Newnham was associate producer of Eye of the Storm (1997), a cinema verité profile of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan that was distributed worldwide by the BBC. She was a San Francisco-based associate producer for several U.S./U.K. co-productions for Discovery/The Learning Channel, including the Emmy-nominated The Human Sexes with Desmond Morris (1996). Newnham graduated from the Documentary Film Program at Stanford University in 1994.

David Grabias
David Grabias is an award-winning documentary filmmaker with over a decade of experience. His films have aired internationally on PBS, A&E, Discovery, FX and National Geographic. David was nominated for an Emmy as a producer on the Discovery Channel’s two-hour documentary special Why Dogs Smile And Chimpanzees Cry, narrated by Sigourney Weaver. More recently, he directed and produced the one-hour documentary The Real Exorcists for A&E, profiling the current state of the exorcism ritual around the world. His previous independent documentary film was Centralia. This revealing portrait of an out-of-control mine fire that threatens to destroy a small Pennsylvania town aired on PBS. And David lived in Turkey for two years to complete the one-hour documentary Those Who Are In Love, which celebrates the country’s vanishing folk minstrel tradition. David has worked extensively in creating programming with a number of Hollywood studios, including Sony, Universal and Disney, and corporate clients such as Goldman Sachs and General Electric. He also produced the orientation film for the Getty Center Museum. David is currently co-producing and co-directing Money and Medicine, a documentary for PBS about the health insurance crisis. A founder of Artifact Studios, David is based in Los Angeles.

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