Origin Story

All superheroes have origin stories. This is Kulap Vilaysack’s. One night when she was 14, a blow-up at home led to the revelation that the man she thought was her biological father was not. There was another man, somebody from her mother’s past, who once helped raise Kulap, but then vanished. Coping with that revelation was one thing. Coming to grips with why everyone - especially her mother - kept it from her was just as torturous. To disentangle the secrets, as well as the decade-long emotional paralysis between mother and daughter, Kulap embarks on a quest for answers. Kulap is an able storyteller and a natural screen presence, her face expresses the elation and befuddlement that comes with meeting a father and discovering family she never knew existed. Kulap’s river of recovery, which takes her from Minnesota and to the Mekong, traces a history that is personal but also spotlights the reality of refugee marriages and the relationship between the second generation, its grief, and that shattering reality. (CAAMFest)