How Does the Film Portray Immigrant Acculturation in a Contemporary America? (Essay Sample)

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How does the film portray immigrant acculturation in a contemporary America? The film provides this acculturation by exploring the lives of three teenagers and the live experiences they go through as they come of age. The three teenagers who are children of Cambodian refugees are faced with array of choices as they grow up in Lowell, Massachusetts. These teens are inhabited with a determined blue-collar American culture colored by their parent’s horrors of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge. The teens are thus intertwined between the traditional Cambodian dance that links them to their native Cambodian culture via their parents and the American popular culture characterized by hip consumerism, fast cars and young romance. Monkey Dance" is a documentary that endeavors to examine how the current generation teenagers of the Cambodian parents navigate through the puzzling landscape of urban contemporary American by using the example of the three teenagers namely Linda Sou, Samnang Hor and Sochenda Uch.
How do the three teenagers manage to make a difference and to start living a life of their parents' dreams? The Dance is ultimately what makes a difference for the better to the three teenagers. For the Cambodian immigrants in those times, the city was a safety haven for them and offered employment opportunities and hope for them. It gave the immigrants a new opportunity to rebuild their lives which had been shattered by the Khmer Rouge genocide. However, with the next generation born in America, the city offers a new wave of lifestyle and array of choices for the youths some of which are risks to take.
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