New film confront 'taboo' subject of gambling

Originally posted on http://bit.ly/paulina-the-film

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Xfsd_cSn8

ORANGE, CA – Under the thick clouds of 555 smokes and a circle of Hennessy scented men, the living room goes awkwardly silent. Three colorful dices with six different objects are revealed and displayed on a flat plate. Immediately, a man hand gestures the empty game board that centers the crowd before he covers the plate’s perimeter with a homemade, duct taped bowl and handle.

Now with his palm pressed and secured, the man lifts up the plate and bowl and gently shakes it. Clink, clink, clank! The dices dance. A quick pause of uncertainty for some while others drunk in confident, these men begin to place their bets on to the board - gambling the family’s money and their future.

Kla kloak is just one of a handful of popular games depicted above in a scene to an upcoming film that explores the topic of gambling. Literally translated as ‘tiger and gourd,’ kla kloak is most commonly found in house settings within immigrant Asian communities. During New Year celebrations, Khmer diaspora communities like the US, Canada and France, kla kloak can be found in Buddhist temples legally played out in the public. Other popular games include ‘a-boang’ (hexagonal dice with toothpick-size spinner) and ‘ka-they’ (six cards game). Despite what appears to be openly accepted, the exegesis of gambling remains uncomfortable for discussion.

“Gambling is a problem often viewed as taboo and shunned by the Khmer community,” said Caylee So, writer and director of the upcoming film, Paulina. “We want to give a different perspective of the problem so we put 17-year-old Paulina to show how the environment of gambling affects the family and the individual.”

As a daughter of Cambodian refugee parents, So underscores the need to use her creative background to bring awareness on gambling addiction. “I know a lot of people affected by it,” said So, reflecting her childhood upbringing in northern Virginia. But she was able to filter out these images early on – successfully completing her degree at George Mason University before serving at the US armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2004 and 2007, respectively.

But Paulina’s story line, however, was not inspired from her childhood or overseas experience. Instead, it was conceived after stumbling upon an old newspaper article she read in March 2011. Elements of Paulina’s script were based on a true story about a brother's deadly addiction to gambling. Upon cleaning out his brother’s belongings, were piles and piles of lottery tickets littering the inside of his car. “It saddened him. This idea that the sum of his brother’s life was a collection of losing numbers,” explained So in a recent promotional video.

The production of Paulina will begin in early October in Long Beach, California with casting calls. Seven characters and 20 individual as extras, including the main character, Paulina, will be chosen then. The actual filming will last 10 days on a budget of $30,000. The 30-minute film will be screened in April 2012 at Chapman University, where So is finishing up her MFA at the Dodge School of Film and Media Arts.

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To learn more about Paulina please visit www.paulinafilm.com.

To contribute to Paulina please visit http://www.indiegogo.com/Paulinafilm