The Donut King

(USA / 2020 / Directed by Alice Gu)

If you were to tour Southern California with a steady appetite for pastries, you would eventually notice that most of the mom and pop donut shops along its highways are owned and operated by Cambodian families. It’s no accident, and its’ a phenomenon that mirrors a particularly American story. Winner of special jury recognition for achievement in documentary at this year’s SXSW festival, The Donut King is a rags to riches story about a man who made millions making donuts, and a colorful tale about the landscape that allowed his American dream to take root.  

The titular donut king is 77-year-old Ted Ngoy, a man who has attained near mythic status among many Cambodian Americans in Los Angeles and Orange County. The sponsor of more than 100 refugee families, Ngoy is almost single-handedly responsible for his compatriots' domination of Southern California’s donut shops, of which 80 percent were owned by Cambodians by the mid-1990s. His is an improbable achievement, and each biographical detail that we get from The Donut King underscores just how unlikely its central character’s entire life has been – from his marriage into a family with great status to his innovation of carnation pink as THE donut-box color of choice. While a man with Ngoy's restless enterprise and financial savvy could have been a runaway success at any place and time, it was late 20th-century America that placed him in a unique position to help so many people — and then to ruin himself in spectacular fashion. As it travels from war-torn Cambodia to a three-story McMansion, Alice Gu’s award-winning film celebrates the potential and perseverance of an immigrant population while never losing sight of their complicated humanity. It’s a fun and interesting ride with sweet appeal.

Unrated / 1 hr 30 mins.