Daily Archives: May 27, 2008

New Year Baby

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New Year Baby airs on PBS – Independent Lens starting today. Check your local listings

Born in a refugee camp on Cambodian New Year’s Day, Socheata Poeuv has always been called “the lucky one” by her family. Her parents survived the Khmer Rouge genocide, escaped to Thailand and moved the entire family to Texas. In the United States, Socheata’s mother and father never talked about what happened in Cambodia, focusing instead on giving the kids a “normal American life.”

On Christmas Day of 2002, Socheata’s parents gathered the family to reveal a secret they had kept for more than 25 years: that her older sisters were actually her cousins, and her brother was her half-brother, the child of her mother’s previous marriage. Reeling from this new information, Socheata wondered what other secrets her parents might have left behind in Cambodia.

In NEW YEAR BABY, Socheata embarks on an emotional journey with her parents to their homeland, retracing the family’s path and picking up lost pieces of her history along the way. But to get to the bottom of her family’s story, she must understand what happened to their former country as well.

Using animation to illustrate family memories and Cambodia’s history, NEW YEAR BABY intertwines the stories of Socheata’s parents with those of millions of others who suffered under the Khmer Rouge. In less than four years, more than 1.7 million Cambodians—about one-fourth of the population—died from starvation, disease or execution.

Taking her parents back to the concentration camp where they had once been held, Socheata pleads, prods and pries, trying to get them to answer questions they have dodged so many times before. How did they, a mismatched couple with little in common, come to marry? What happened to them in the Khmer Rouge labor camps? How did they survive the genocide when so many others died? And why had they never told the truth? NEW YEAR BABY discovers that long-held secrets hide not only painful memories, but also love forged under inhuman conditions.

Watch the trailer for “New Year Baby”

Transformers 2 – Chinese City

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We posted a Transformers 2 casting call a few weeks back. The location of the shoot is in Bethlehem, PA near Philadelphia. The Chinese city for Transformers 2 is coming together nicely. Looks like this location may be for the first shoot. Michael Bay revealed in his blog that shotting begins on June 2.

This Bethlehem Steel site is being transformed into a Chinese City.

Chinese signs for Entry/Exit Point on the roof.

Chinese characters on the road read Cargo Loading Area

This blog also has additional details about the shoot.

– The east side of the site is being re-developed so most of the shooting will take place on the west side.

– A new concept car (possible Transformer?) not used in the first movie will be used there

– Two Blackhawk helicopters will be used

– The area will be patrolled by the site security and Bethlehem City Police who will also and close streets for the shoot.

Our initial guess was that this would be a location for Soundwave, who is supposed to be in Transformer 2. Potentially, Soundwave could do audio translation. The other guess would be a a Transformer with a trailer for cargo like Ultra Magnus. In any event, the location is an important scene for the movie.

Some fake Transformer 2 trailers have surfaced as well.

UPDATE:

A letter was sent out to residents in Bethlehem, PA. Shooting for Transformers 2 will take place at 511 E Third Street on June 2-4.

The work will include aerial work with both camera and military helicopters, large scale pyrotechnics, prop guns and squibs, and large lights. We are working with the city to close 3rd Street from Hayes to Polk and Polk Street from 3rd to 1st 7pm – 6am all three days. This will help us maintain a safety perimeter for our work. Local traffic and emergency lanes will be kept open at all times.