This year, the Bay Area has been treated to at least five films dealing with some aspects of Vietnam and Vietnamese Americans; one more is slated for July.
In April, KTEH-TV in San Jose screened four films: The Fall of Saigon, Oh Saigon, Saigon, USA, and Bolinao 52.
Two other films examined the lingering legacy of Agent Orange. KCSM-TV in San Mateo broadcasted the world premiere of The Last Ghost of War on May 15. On July 8, one can see Agent Orange: A Personal Requiem, also shown for the first time, at the San Francisco Public Library,
The Fall of Saigon is actually an episode of the series Vietnam: A Television History, first broadcast on PBS in 1983. It covers the last two years of the war, including the frantic final days of the fall of Saigon.
Oh Saigon is more biographical. Twenty years after her own resettlement in the U.S., filmmaker Dan Hoang returned to connect the dots in her extended family, which was split along ideological lines during a war that divided a country: One brother fought on the South Vietnamese side, one on the North, and another was a pacifist.
Saigon, USA is also a family story, framed inside a community event in Orange County. In 1999, when a businessman in Westminster, Calif., displayed the current Vietnam flag along a photograph of Ho Chi Minh in his storefront window, a portion of the Vietnamese American community reacted vehemently in a protest that lasted for nearly two months. Lindsey Jang and Robert C. Winn captured both the passion of the public events and the intense generation gap within one VietAm family.
Bolinao 52 is another thread in the same tapestry with different twists. In 1988, a boat with 110 Vietnamese left the country seeking refuge. After 37 days at sea, the 52 survivors were rescued by Filipino fishermen. Those 37 days tell a harrowing story of abandonment, false promises, compassion fatigue by passersby and, ultimately, survival by cannibalism. It was filmed by Duc Nguyen, himself a boat person, albeit under happier circumstances.
The still controversial issue of Agent Orange is highlighted in The Last Ghost of War, a documentary by Pham Quoc Thai and Janet Gardner. The film is a good primer on this problem that still afflicts millions of Vietnamese, including many VietAms.
In July, the Bay Area will host the premiere of a film about a more personal experience with Agent Orange. Greg Davis was exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam and, as a result, died in 2003. His wife, filmmaker Masako Sakata, set out to learn about Agent Orange and its impact in the country today. Agent Orange: A Personal Requiem will be shown at the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Public Library (at Larkin and Grove streets) on Thursday, July 10, at 6 p.m., with Ms. Sakata in attendance.
Vu-Duc Vuong is a teacher and writer in the Bay Area. vuduc.vuong@gmail.com