In January of 2017, I had the opportunity to travel to the country of Cambodia with one very resilient genocide survivor and her family. Amanda Prak is a survivor of the Khmer Rouge invasion in 1975.

The funds that I needed for travel and equipment expenses were given to me through my Kickstarter Project called "Facing A Cambodian Past". Twenty-five people donated various amounts. With these funds, I was able to accompany Amanda Prak, Stephanie Prak, and a group of 19 travelers from Randolph Macon College in Richmond, VA for 8 days through various locations in Cambodia. Many of these locations were linked to the Prak family's past lives in Cambodia during the late 1960s and 1970s when their lives were turned upside down by the Khmer Rouge. Some of the locations were chosen for their intense historical awareness of the Genocide that took place in Cambodia. A few locations that we visited were primarily tourist destinations that helped me to better understand the history, culture, and current state of the Khmer people. Finally, we spent several days at a Khmer School located in Raing Kessey, Battambang where Amanda Prak has dedicated her time, money and energy into creating a school where children can learn effectively, so as to create a better future for themselves and their community.

My experience in Cambodia was phenomenal and I am grateful for the opportunity. Some of the recordings that I made in Cambodia, were successful but other historical portions were too overwhelming to translate in the fast pace of travel that we were expected to keep. There were many pre planned events that were time consuming, and the travel on the roads was difficult and exhausting. I have learned much from this experience about planning for production.

My biggest regret in creating this project is that I did not seek any funding for editing or post production work. This became an insurmountable obstacle, as time as passed. It is a regret that has cost me in emotional, financial, and professional ways. This month I have decided to onece again, press forward on editing for the documentary in order to show some of the work that I did during that week in Cambodia. I expect that I will need to fundraise in the future in order to finesse the project further if there is still an interest.

my YouTube Channel over the next 3 months. I will link those videos here for viewing. When I've completed a rough draft of the documentary, I will privately release it to my Kickstarter Supporters and open the discussion for determining the life of this video.