The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America

Producers: Taggart Siegel, Jim McSliver, Sarita Siegel
Director of Photograpy: Taggart Siegel
Editor: Jim McSilver
Writers:Jim McSliver, Sarita Siegel

Paja Thao is a Hmong Shaman living in Appleton, Wisconsin. Taggart Siegel has filmed Paja and his family since their arrival from war-torn Southeast Asia over fifteen years ago. The result is a moving documentation of a family’s struggles in a new environment, tenderly narrated by Paja’s youngest daughter, twelve-year-old Chai.

The trust Siegel earned from the Hmong community of Appleton is apparent and remarkable. He has captured compelling footage of the family’s traditional Hmong ceremonies as well as revealing interviews with Paja and his family.

Though this is an intimate portrait of the Thao family, the film explores universal issues of cultural transformation, spirituality and family. There is a sense of sadness throughout the film at the inevitability of losing Hmong culture, but it ends hopeful for a future that can encompass both cultures.

Toni Tabora

The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman in America is showing in this program:

The Split Horn

• The Split Horn: Life of a Hmong Shaman
  
• T.L. Xmas