Short Film
Big Buildings
Anya Vaverko's most recent travels took her to Burma and the communities on its border where she documented Karen refugees, as well as to Bhutanese refugee camps in eastern Nepal.
With these two experiences, she was surprised to learn that Austin, Texas was home to an increasing number of Burmese and a would-be home for Bhutanese refugees. With these experiences and a class on video documentary, she began documenting the Ghimirey family, a young couple and their child who were the very first Bhutanese refugee family to be resettled in Austin. Their story is one of surprise, disapointment and hope as they navigate a new society and build a new life for themselves and their child in the United States. The film has been entered in the South Asian Film Festival. Anya has plans do documentary work in Nepal in the future, as well as educating youth about storytelling through photography and video.
- Compiled by Shreyans Tamang, Creative Director, V.E.N.T! Magazine
Anya Vaverko
Anya Vaverko was born in Ukraine, grew up in New York and has been on the move ever since. She's never really been able to leave Nepal, though, since she got there in 2003 on a whim while traveling in India. In her travels, she developed a growing interest in photography and writing. While in Nepal, she had the chance to get a taste of journalism while writing for ECS Magazine in Kathmandu. From there, she went on to eventually study journalism at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota. Currently, she is studying photojournalim at the University of Texas in Austin, where she is trying to develop her video story telling skills. Visit her at www.anyavaverko.com.
( Jun 19th 2009, 11:46 PM ) says:
Nicely shot. Great film, Anya. You present your content emotionally and aesthetically. Well done.
( Jun 20th 2009, 07:36 AM ) says:
just ran into this webmag love it. video captured emotions in such a short time. im a film student in UK and this video is definitely a winner in so many ways. anya, do you speak the nepal language? must be hard to capture the essence in a foreign country but you did it so well. big kudos.
( Jun 22nd 2009, 02:24 PM ) says:
I hope Anya will make another film on them in few years.
hi anyaji, very nice video and well made. i am happy to see this subject on video. hope to see more. thank you.