KhmerConnection becomes an official sponsor of the first annual Cambodia Town Film Festival (CTFF)

By Cambodia Town Film Festival -

KhmerConnection is proud to be the official sponsor of the first annual Cambodia Town Film Festival (CTFF). As an official sponsor, we will receive exclusive media and information rights from CTFF to relay to the KhmerConnection and Cambodian community. From CTFF’s website: A vibrant and active community, Long Beach’s Cambodia Town has become the center for Cambodian culture with more than 20,000 visitors attending the Cambodian New Year celebration each year. Understanding that Cambodia Town is a major hub for culture and commerce, Cambodia Town Film Festival (CTFF) has begun planning the first-ever Cambodia Town Film Festival, slated to take place September 14th and 15th of 2013. Given that Cambodian-Americans are among the fastest-growing populations in the United States, and with increased attention paid to Cambodian culture on the world stage, this festival is indeed timely. The types of work featured at the festival – which involve stories about family,… read more »

Cerritos College Student from Cambodia Named One of Nation’s Top Scholars

By Cerritos College Media Relations -

Vannaren Long, a Cerritos College honors student, has been named one of the nation’s top scholars by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Program.

Long, who is from Long Beach, was among 74 students chosen from nearly 800 applicants from two-year colleges nationwide. The scholarship, which is one of the most competitive undergraduate transfer scholarships in the nation, will provide Long with up to $30,000 per year to complete a bachelor’s degree.

From Refugee To Role Model: A Cambodia Town Story

By Elson Trinidad - lifestyle

There are immigrant stories, comprised of themes of hope, opportunity, and dreams. And then there are refugee stories, where hope is drowned out by fear, where the only opportunity is for survival, and instead of chasing dreams, it’s running away from nightmares. Long Beach’s Cambodian American community is the largest in the United States with a population of some 50,000, but only a small fraction of them are actual immigrants. The vast majority have refugee origins, stemming from the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, which ran Cambodia from 1975 to 1979 and killed an estimated two million of its own people in a genocide consisting of executions, famine, and disease. It was all in the name of the Khmer Rouge’s social engineering programs, which forced a nationalist, isolationist form of agrarian communism upon the country. Death was a certainty to those who didn’t — or couldn’t — comply. The regime was the topic of the Oscar-nominated 1984 motion picture “The Killing Fields,” which brought that era to Western mainstream consciousness for the first time.

Meet Sophea Chamroeun

By Azeliz Mary - entertainment

Sophea has been studying Classical and Folk Dance for 9 years. In addition to being a talented dancer, she also is an emerging singer, performing in different groups and often appearing on TV or in live shows. Highly motivated to achieve her goals, she regularly seeks out new experiences to learn new skills.