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Cambodia, Home

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cambodia.jpgHe owes his first name, and perhaps his life, to a German journalist. It was late April 1975, two weeks after the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, the capitol of Cambodia. Under the order of Pol Pot, the city was being hastily evacuated. Anyone who questioned the order, or begged to be left behind, was shot, as were intellectuals, writers, and artists. In time, the genocide claimed an estimated 1.7 million through execution, starvation, and disease.

Peter Tan Keo's mother, a translator for the American Red Cross, was desperately trying to get out of her country. Disguised as a Filipina, she quietly begged for a spot on a convoy filled with international journalists fleeing Cambodia for Thailand. A German journalist named Peter gave up his seat so that "my mom's life could be spared," says Keo, Ed.M.'07. He says she counts her blessings every day.

Meanwhile, his father, a farm boy who won a scholarship in 1974 to study in the United States, tried to return home to help the country. During a brief stay in Paris while waiting for his visa, he met Peter's mother, who had made it to France and was working as a waitress. She, fortuitously, hid his passport. His friends continued on to Cambodia without him. After one postcard from Beijing, none were ever heard from again. "She went on instinct alone, which saved my dad's life," Keo says.

His parents eventually settled in the United States, first in Philadelphia, then in Houston. The family never knew what became of the journalist. But today, Keo is paying him back, in a sense, by telling his own stories of Cambodia through films and documentaries.

"Growing up, my dad spent virtually every day talking about the importance of reinvesting human capital to rebuild the country," Keo says. His parents also told their children to "think big and dream bigger." So with his brother Paul, an actor and producer, he decided to start Stella Link Entertainment, a production company that entertains while also educating.

"It's our firm belief that we can disseminate cold, hard facts to a critical mass without boring them to tears or using esoteric language often found in academic research and literature," he says, adding that documentaries have a proven track record of success. "Think Michael Moore and all of his documentaries and every single movie you've seen that starts with facts and ends with a quote to change the world. That's exactly what our film, Children After the Killing Fields, aspires to achieve. Our hope is that people will be moved to action."

The film, which begins with an Adolf Hitler quote, "He alone who owns the youth, gains the future," focuses on an American doctoral student struggling to rescue two young girls from the sex trade. Keo wrote the screenplay and his brother produced it. Hollywood casting director Geno Havens helped with structure.

"I was frustrated by the lack of progress in Cambodia," Keo says. "What frustrated us most was the subjection of human abuse of the worst form onto children. Young girls and boys were being sold for a few dollars to brothels, pimps, and mamasans. This wasn't the Cambodia I remember hearing about, and it certainly wasn't what my parents remember seeing. Something awful had changed."

As they point out in the film, according to the U.S. Department of State, an estimated 800,000 people worldwide are trafficked across Cambodia every year for sexual exploitation. About 80 percent are women; 50 percent are under the age of 14.

Keo and his brother are hopeful that a studio will pick up the film this year. (One deal was in the works but fell through because of creative differences.) They are also working the film festival circuit and hope to eventually show it at Cannes and Sundance. They are also finishing two other documentaries, A Legacy of Hope, about a 30-year-old prostitute taken in by the Cambodian Women's Crisis Center, and A Deadly Harvest, which follows the world's first all-female landmine removal team working in Cambodia. With this last film, the brothers, both fluent in Cambodian and French, helped with translating. "That was half the battle," Keo says.

Next Chapter
While work on the films continues, Keo has gone back to his parents' country to live and to focus on public policy. Most of his extended family there is gone. Aside from his parents, no one was able to flee Cambodia. Distant cousins were forced into labor camps. Grandparents, uncles, and aunts were executed by the Khmer Rouge. Yet Keo says his heart and soul has always been deep within the country.

"I am nothing without an identity firmly attached to this small Southeast Asian nation, mired between Thailand and Vietnam," he says. "My family and people have lost so much. My entire life has been a constant struggle because of that loss, but it's also a blessing. I have a sense of self, a sense of belonging."

And he won't really be alone. In April, he and Seng-Dao Yang, Ed.M.'07, whom he met at the Ed School, got married on the 35th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge invasion.

"I wanted to start a brand new chapter in my life without constantly being reminded of this tormented past," he says of choosing that date. "Now my family and I can look back to that day as one of the most blessed days of our lives, the day I would marry my best friend, Seng-Dao."

Both are now working for the University of Cambodia. Keo, vice president for international cooperation, is helping to build partnerships with other universities around the world. He also teaches courses in education theory and international politics. Yang is director of their foundation and will teach courses on education theory and women's leadership.

Keo is also advising the prime minister's office. He is developing policies to improve the country's social, economic, and political conditions and is making sure those policies are translated into real, grassroots action. When it comes to education, one area that he will focus on is how meeting basic needs is a necessary first step before tackling an issue like the achievement gap.

"In countries like Cambodia, the achievement gap is exacerbated by a quality-of-life gap," he says. "That is, many Cambodians are struggling every day to make ends meet, and many make less than a dollar a day. While access to high-quality education is important, so too are basic necessities like food, potable water, electricity, and shelter that many in America take for granted, even those living in poverty. For that reason, I decided to pack my bags and head off to the place I've always called home: Cambodia. The time for action is now."

Go to www.stellalinkent.com to watch video clips of Keo's movies.

Longfellow Door

Ed. Magazine

The magazine of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

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