Aka Don Bonus

Never have I wanted a "where are they now" update more than after watching this. Where are you now, Sokly Ny, aka Don Bonus? The 1995 documentary chronicles his life as an 18-year-old Cambodian immigrant trying to finish high school and cope with the difficult surroundings of an impoverished San Francisco. It feels like everything is against him and his family, whom it is clear he deeply loves. He is so open and outgoing despite the adversity. The documentary has a raw, intimate feel, as Bonus himself is manning the camera. You see him waiting for hours for the police after a window is shot out, with his terrified grandmother looking on. You see him up close with his multigenerational family around him, packed into a studio apartment in the Tenderloin, watching TV and talking. You see his English teacher joking around about a paper he has turned in, "Escape from the Jungle," apparently not realizing that his family literally did that to get away from the Khmer Rouge. The California they end up in is also filled with danger, as they are plagued with theft and gang warfare. It's gripping and somehow never feels downbeat or self-pitying - just a real kid coping the best he can. It is truly great.

The one happy update I was able to find was that his brother Touch, who (spoiler) heads to reform school after a shooting, was by 1997 enrolled in a community college - the best place to get a foothold on a future when the odds are against you! - and went to New York to accept an Emmy on his brother's behalf for the documentary, which ran on PBS. Do check out "AKA Don Bonus." At a smidge over an hour, you can watch it in the same time as an episode of something silly like "The Bachelor" and it will enrich your life a million times more.