Donut People
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0:01 - 0:06♪ Cambodian music ♪
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0:22 - 0:30[DONUT PEOPLE]
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0:30 - 0:32[Samoeurn Phan]
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0:32 - 0:35[Affectionately known as
Pou Sam (Uncle Sam)] -
0:35 - 0:39[Sam has opened over 20 donut shops
for Cambodian families across Houston.] -
0:39 - 0:42(Uncle Sam) Well, when I came here in 1994
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0:42 - 0:47to eat one donut you didn't realize
how much work goes into one donut -
0:48 - 0:51until you actually go into
doing the donuts. -
0:53 - 0:57You know, it takes quite a bit
just to make one donut. -
0:58 - 1:01I start off by finding a location.
-
1:01 - 1:02If I find a location,
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1:02 - 1:08I get a family that needs a donut shop
to go to look at the location, -
1:08 - 1:11and if they like it,
we negotiate the price, -
1:11 - 1:14and if the price is right,
I build it for them and turn them the key. -
1:15 - 1:18You know, most of them
already know how to make donuts. -
1:18 - 1:20They work for a family member,
-
1:20 - 1:24you know, they've already worked
for like two, three or five years -
1:24 - 1:27to save up the money
to start up the business. -
1:28 - 1:30[Chandara Meas
Owner of Snowflake Donuts, Galveston] -
1:30 - 1:33[Cambodian Immigrant]
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1:35 - 1:37(Chandara Meas) That's what I'm saying,
when I came to the States, -
1:37 - 1:41I don't have no relatives in here,
I don't speak that much English, -
1:41 - 1:43I gotta start to learn English
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1:43 - 1:45and start to work to support myself...
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1:45 - 1:48and I don't have chance
to go back to college, -
1:48 - 1:51so I end up at a donut shop.
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1:51 - 1:54Most Cambodians who take us,
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1:54 - 1:58they own a donut shop,
they run a donut business... -
1:59 - 2:02yeah, you know, it's hard to do it,
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2:03 - 2:06not many people want to do that job
as I'm doing right now. -
2:07 - 2:09[Countless Cambodians were tortured]
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2:09 - 2:12[and more than a million were killed]
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2:12 - 2:13[under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime.]
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2:13 - 2:15[More than a million Cambodians fled
and became refugees.] -
2:15 - 2:18From 1975 to 1979,
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2:18 - 2:19there's Khmer Rouge ran by Pol Pot.
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2:19 - 2:22At that time I was 10 years old...
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2:22 - 2:25I still remember the torture,
-
2:25 - 2:30lot of people died
by starving and sickness... -
2:30 - 2:33most of [the time]
they were killing people. -
2:34 - 2:35That was a hard time
-
2:35 - 2:39and that was the worst thing
that happened in the world. -
2:40 - 2:47Most Cambodians escaped from the war
in 1981after the Khmer Rouge regime, -
2:47 - 2:53and when they started to come here,
people don't speak that much English, -
2:53 - 2:58so that's why they started
working at donut shops -
2:58 - 3:00because most of them what they do
are family business -- -
3:02 - 3:04This is my wife's nephew.
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3:04 - 3:06He just came to the USA last year.
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3:07 - 3:10He came in a special case
that they call "Lottery Visa". -
3:10 - 3:13He's a lucky one
that won a lottery green card. -
3:17 - 3:22The business we just opened--
it is kind of slow, it's brand new. -
3:22 - 3:27Hopefully, we can stay for a long time
until we get some profit... -
3:27 - 3:31to take care of my family, my kids...
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3:31 - 3:33go to school, go to college...
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3:34 - 3:36I have a beautiful kid.
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3:39 - 3:42It's like, if you work for a company,
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3:42 - 3:45you have a different schedule
than the donut people. -
3:45 - 3:49So the donut people,
we wake up at 2:00 or 3:00 am, -
3:49 - 3:54and we'll be done by 12:00 or 1:00 pm,
and take a couple-of-hours-nap, -
3:54 - 3:58and, you know, get together
and then, go to sleep, and wake up, -
3:58 - 4:00and go to make some more donuts!
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4:02 - 4:07(man singing Karaoke in Cambodian)
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4:11 - 4:14[Tao Ngo Vietnamese Restaurant
North Houston] -
4:14 - 4:17[Cambodian Karaoke Party]
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4:20 - 4:23(end of singing)
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4:25 - 4:28Yeah, we like to get together
because, you know, -
4:28 - 4:30we work seven days a week.
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4:30 - 4:34Some of us wake up at 1:00 am,
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4:34 - 4:35some of us wake up at 2:00 am,
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4:35 - 4:37some of us at 3:00 am,
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4:38 - 4:40and we work seven days a week,
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4:40 - 4:44you know, this is the only fun we have.
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4:45 - 4:49(Cambodian music)
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4:49 - 4:54I would say 95% of the donut shops
in Texas, not just in Houston, -
4:54 - 4:57in Texas is Cambodian people owned.
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4:59 - 5:01One one-big -family, that's all.
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5:02 - 5:05(Cambodian music)
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5:35 - 5:38[Second Generation Donut Shop Owner]
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5:38 - 5:40[Roth's parents, sisters, aunts,]
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5:40 - 5:41[and uncles all own donut shops.]
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5:41 - 5:43My parents bought the store in 1994.
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5:44 - 5:47They would always bring us on weekends
because we have school on weekdays. -
5:47 - 5:51I really dread waking up on the weekend
just to come make donut, you know. -
5:52 - 5:55They told me one day
I'm going to own my business -
5:55 - 5:57and I kind of say
I didn't want to do this. -
5:57 - 6:02This is not my first choice
of what I really wanted to do. -
6:04 - 6:08For me, going to school
what I really wanted to do, -
6:08 - 6:10I wanted to experience that life.
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6:10 - 6:14One day I woke up and I realized
I didn't want to work for somebody else. -
6:15 - 6:17I called my mom and I told her
I wanted to come back home -
6:17 - 6:19and try this again,
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6:19 - 6:22and she was very excited,
very happy for me -
6:22 - 6:25that I can kind of woke up
and I wanted to do this. -
6:29 - 6:31I get up at 4:00 am,
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6:31 - 6:35and my sisters get up
at around 2 - 2:30 am, -
6:35 - 6:37they're closer to the plant
so they wake up earlier, -
6:37 - 6:41to go to the plant and--
-
6:41 - 6:45I'm fortunately to have
a little bit of both, -
6:45 - 6:50so I can stay in bed a little longer
and they can-- -
6:51 - 6:53So when I first got to Houston
I didn't know-- -
6:53 - 6:57I thought my family was the only one
that was doing donuts -
6:57 - 6:59but I come to find out that
-
6:59 - 7:02a lot of Cambodian people
have done this way before we have... -
7:02 - 7:04You know, it's like a community
of helping out each other, you know, -
7:04 - 7:08like, people were telling each other
what can make you successful -
7:08 - 7:11and I don't think anybody
was envious of each other, -
7:11 - 7:14just wanted to see our culture succeed,
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7:14 - 7:18and the donut business
is where it started -
7:18 - 7:20for a lot of these Cambodian cultures.
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7:21 - 7:22It's definitely a dream
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7:22 - 7:24that a lot of people want
when they are in Cambodia, -
7:24 - 7:28to have their own place, back in Cambodia.
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7:28 - 7:31It's a fast-pace life.
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7:31 - 7:33Every day is a struggle to find
money and food for the family. -
7:33 - 7:39It made me realized
what I have out here in America. -
7:39 - 7:40As hard as I work down here,
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7:40 - 7:44I think that they work harder over there
to make a small living. -
7:50 - 7:52My first place when I came,
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7:52 - 7:56are the one along with Donald's Donut
on el Dorado in Webster. -
7:56 - 7:59Then I preach it out to
Yankee Doodle Donuts. -
8:01 - 8:07And that's when I met David
on the El Dorado store. -
8:08 - 8:10I was teaching him since he was young.
-
8:10 - 8:15I taught him probably
about five years, I believe. -
8:16 - 8:17[Houston coffee entrepreneur.]
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8:17 - 8:18[Spent high school with Sam & Roth
working in the Ouch family donut shop.] -
8:18 - 8:21(David Buehrer) My name is David Buehrer
and this is Morningstar. -
8:22 - 8:25(Uncle Sam) Most of the time
I don't ask for help, you know. -
8:25 - 8:28It surprises me it came up from David
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8:28 - 8:32just to ask me to get into
a business partnership with him. -
8:36 - 8:38(David B.) This is the first I'd learned with--
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8:38 - 8:40when I was in high school
was how to roll kolaches -
8:40 - 8:43and Sam's family
they would let me roll a kolache -
8:43 - 8:46and they would immediately
unroll the kolache, -
8:46 - 8:49and then they would roll it again
to make sure it was perfect. -
8:49 - 8:52And for like the first three
or four months of me working there -
8:52 - 8:55they never served any of my kolaches.
(chuckles) -
8:56 - 9:00One day they just saw one of them
and decided it was okay, -
9:00 - 9:03and from then on,
they let me roll kolaches for them. -
9:03 - 9:04But it took like months
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9:04 - 9:07before they even serve
one of the kolaches that I rolled. -
9:07 - 9:09It shows the attention to details
on level of quality -
9:09 - 9:11and maybe, I just needed to learn more,
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9:11 - 9:14but it took months to roll
the kolaches with them. -
9:16 - 9:18(David B.) One of the things
we wanted to do with Morningtar -
9:18 - 9:22is bring in the technique that we learned
from the Cambodian donut shops -
9:22 - 9:27and apply it to the foodie nature
that specialty copy exists in. -
9:27 - 9:30We have a lot of bartenders, and chefs,
and sommelier friends, -
9:30 - 9:33and a lot of our donuts
are inspired by them. -
9:34 - 9:39Yeah, at one point in high school
I was driving at two in the morning -
9:39 - 9:42to go and learn how to make donuts
in Magnolia, Texas, with Sam. -
9:42 - 9:47And then, an hour back,
and then go to school by 7:30, so... -
9:47 - 9:50but you do what you gotta do to learn.
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9:50 - 9:52(Sam P.) In the nineties, you know,
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9:52 - 9:56that's when the donuts started here
in Houston by the Cambodian community -
9:56 - 10:00to now is a long time to me...
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10:00 - 10:05You feel like it needs change,
it needs some time to change. -
10:07 - 10:09(Sam P.) And then,
all of a sudden one day, -
10:09 - 10:14he called me pou,
which is Cambodian for uncle, -
10:15 - 10:19and said, "Would you like to do
a donut shop and a coffee together?", -
10:19 - 10:23I said, "Sure", but, you know,
I never expected it. -
10:26 - 10:28In the future, you know,
-
10:28 - 10:32the new generations
they know that I own the store -
10:32 - 10:35and they want to do something like this.
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10:37 - 10:40I don't want to do
the same thing every day, you know. -
10:40 - 10:44Especially, because I've been doing it
for almost 20 years. -
10:45 - 10:47You're doing the same thing every day,
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10:47 - 10:53and to me, I wouldn't want to go back
and do the same shop -
10:53 - 10:55like a mom-and-pop shop.
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10:55 - 11:00This is the shop that I want to do
as the next one... -
11:00 - 11:03And the next one, and the next one...
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11:05 - 11:11People have no idea
what goes into a single donut here. -
11:11 - 11:14English subtitles by
Jenny Lam-Chowdhury
- Title:
- Donut People
- Description:
-
"This short food film tells the story of Cambodian immigrants in Texas, where Cambodians own an estimated 95% of the donut shops. Some of the film's subjects escaped torture and persecution in Cambodia at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. Interviews with immigrants and their children offer insights into the culture. The film wraps up with a look at the exciting new style of Cambodian donut shop/coffee house with gourmet Asian donuts and hip baristas."
DISCLAIMER: I don't own this video and I'm not monetizing it. This is a copy only used with the purpose of adding subtitles and making it accessible to more people around the world.
"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use."
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Eating With My Five Senses
- Project:
- Food Film Festival - New York 2019
- Duration:
- 11:46
Jenny Lam published English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People | ||
Jenny Lam edited English subtitles for Donut People |