Viet Nam Film Series 
Sponsored by the
YALE COUNCIL ON SOUTHEAST ASIA STUDIES
(scroll down for synopses)

Thursday, Sept 12:
7:30 P.M.
New Films about the American and Vietnamese Post-War Experiences 
Vietnam Passages: Journeys from War to Peace (60 min) 
Green Dragon (140 min) 

Friday, Sept 13: 
8:00 P.M. 
New and Unseen Vietnamese Films about the Other Side of the Vietnam War 
Aftermath: The Remnants of War (73 min) 
Gao Rang (Grilled Rice) (52 min) 
Where War Has Passed (28 min) 

Saturday, Sept 14: 
8:00 P.M. 
New American Films about Vietnam 
Daughter from Danang (80 min) 
A Dream in Hanoi (101 min) 

Sunday, Sept 15: 
8:00 P.M. 
New and Classic Films from Vietnam 
Ben Khong Chong (Wharf of Widows) (100 min) 
Chuyen Tu Te (How to Behave) (43 min) 

FILM SYNOPSES FROM THE DISTRIBUTORS: 

Vietnam Passages: Journeys from War to Peace (60 min) 
Year: 2002 
Synopsis:  The helicopter carrying the last American soldiers in Vietnam lifts off the embassy roof, and a quagmire that cost more than 50,000 U.S. lives is finally over.  We are familiar with America’s view of the war and its path to healing, but what about Vietnam and the Vietnamese?  The war touched the lives of every man, woman and child in the country.  Here are six of their stories.  This one-hour documentary from producer Sandy Northrop brings the last 25 years in Vietnam alive through the perspective of seven individuals whose lives, once defined by war, now personalize the struggle of a country entering the new millennium at peace. Filmed in and around one of Asia's most colorful and storied cities, the film blends individual narratives with archival footage and photographs. 

Green Dragon (140 min) 
Year: 2002 
Synopsis:  From the Vietnamese-American Bui brothers, whose last film was the well-received Three Seasons, comes their latest feature, Green Dragon.  In 1975, refugee camps were set up across the deserts of the United States to house an exodus of over 100,000 Vietnamese immigrants before and immediately after the fall of Saigon. They were considered the first wave, and would represent the beginning of a new generation of Americans.  A child, Minh Pham (Trung Nguyen), opens our eyes to this new struggle, where, like the flag, America is both familiar and unfamiliar. Through his daily search for his mother in the vast Camp Pendleton Marine Base, California, we are introduced to a kaleidoscope of characters, and through their eyes we witness the spirit of imagination, ambition, hope and rebirth; as well as tragedy of torn families, false expectation and lost identity. Uncommon stories merge to create a fabric of common struggles, desires and fears; and like the wavering flag, and America herself, GREEN DRAGON is both familiar and unfamiliar, and removes our blinds to illuminate. 

Aftermath: The Remnants of War (73 min) 
Year: 2002 
Synopsis:  AFTERMATH takes us to Bosnia, France, Russia and Vietnam to meet a series of unique people. A Frenchman picks up unexploded bombs from the First World War; a Russian tries to identify bones from the Second World War; a Vietnamese struggles with the lingering effects of Agent Orange from the Vietnam War; and Bosnians live in an environment studded with mine-fields. Their stories flow from one to the next, providing portraits of man's inhumanity to man but also our ability to heal old wounds. From Asia to Europe and the Americas, Aftermath: The Remnants of War has been playing to international film festival audiences since its release in November, garnering multiple awards. 

Gao Rang (Grilled Rice) (52 min) 
Year: 2000 
Synopsis:  The war in Vietnam was the most filmed conflict in world history. But, unlike the thousands of Western journalists, a small band of North Vietnamese and NLF cameramen has largely been forgotten, though they founded Vietnamese cinema.  GAO RANG (meaning grilled or burnt rice) tells the story of these cameramen/soldiers. In their own words, they describe their experiences filming in combat, first against the French and later the Americans.  Mai Loc and Khoung Mê, two veterans from the French war, tell of acquiring the first cameras and instruction manuals. Mr. Xuong, a traveling projectionist during both wars, recalls projecting films along the 17th Parallel, and remembers how the public reacted to the films.   Tran Van Thuy (director of HOW TO BEHAVE) and Lê Man Thich
(Director at the Studio for Documentary Films in Hanoi) screen some of the material that they shot. They describe the hardship and fear they faced in combat and during American bombings. For all of them, "to make propaganda was obvious." But they also discuss their regrets. Thuy says, "If we had had a more critical historical awareness, we could have left much better images." Their films give the impression that everything was easy. They didn't film enough of the hard daily life, and regret the many "heroic deaths that were not filmed." It would have been "useless," the footage would not have been used. Today, much of the footage these cameramen and their comrades shot is disappearing. The cost of preserving and storing the film is too expensive. Their history (and part of ours) is being recycled" for a few bits of silver. 

Where War Has Passed (28 min) 
Year: 1998 
""Where War Has Passed" is a Vietnamese view of the Agent Orange issue, and an interesting example of advocacy journalism in Viet Nam. It was originally made for Vietnamese audiences only. The film makers noticed that Vietnamese veterans and their children who were suffering from possible effects of Agent Orange received no government benefits, although benefits were  available for families of wounded veterans and for families of those killed in action. After this film was aired and after print articles, the government established a fund for those possibly affected by Agent Orange. The film was produced by the National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio, Hanoi. The English version of this film was sponsored by a number of international non-governmental organizations working in Viet Nam.  It won 1st place in an international film festival in Germany, and 2nd place in an international environmental film festival in Japan. It has been shown in juried festivals in Santa Barbara, Canada, and elsewhere. 

Daughter from Danang (80 min) 
Year: 2001 
Synopsis: A Vietnamese mother and her Amerasian daughter are reunited after 22 years. Both have dreamed of a joyful reunion, but their hopes are shattered as cultural differences and the years of separation take their toll. Journeying from the Vietnam War to Pulaski, Tennessee, DAUGHTER FROM DANANG is about a war in the past and making peace with the present.  Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. 

A Dream in Hanoi (101 min) 
Year: 2002 
Synopsis: Twenty five years after the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese and Americans join forces in a unique collaboration. Two theater companies, one American, one Vietnamese, come together to stage the first performances in Vietnam of Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A DREAM IN HANOI follows the actors, directors, producers and technicians from both countries as they struggle to surmount the obstacles of language, culture, ideology and a history of war—on their journey to opening night at Hanoi's famous Opera House.  The stakes rise with the news that president of the United States, Bill Clinton may attend the opening night performance in Hanoi’s Opera House. As the production hurtles towards that day it seems the entire collaboration will founder under the weight of a series of disasters, each more improbable than the last. Yet for all the cross-cultural angst, misunderstanding and mishaps, the relationship between the artists of the two nations is revealed for what it is: a tumultuous love affair born out of a yearning to be understood and to find meaning beyond their disparate histories and culture.  The film features Vietnam's renowned theater, the Central Dramatic Company of Vietnam, and the Artists Repertory Theater of Portland, Oregon. Music is performed by artists of Vietnam's National Theater of Music, Dance and Song and the Cheo Theater of Hanoi. Narrated by F. Murray Abraham (Amadeus, Finding Forrester). 

Ben Khong Chong (Wharf Of Widows) (100 min) 
Year: 2000 
Synopsis:  Winner of several international film festivals, this film tells the story of Van, a veteran of the war against the French colonial regime (1946-54), who returns to his hometown in North Vietnam. His village may nominally be at peace, but it is troubled by social unrest. Land reform and expropriations are being carried out. The older women have lost their husbands in the war and the young ones can't find any. Van becomes interested in two women, Nhan, a war widow, and Hon, a former landowner in whose house he is billeted while she is confined to the kitchen. When the Vietnam War breaks out in full force, the young men of the village are quickly drafted. Van and Nhan become friendly, a friendship that only exacerbates the loneliness of the other women. The general rejection of their relationship culminates in a vociferous night-time protest in the village. 

Chuyen Tu Te (How to Behave) (43 min) 
Year: 1987 
Synopsis:  Originally banned in Vietnam, this documentary was released only after the intervention of Communist Party leader Nguyen van Linh. How to Behave then became a smash hit, seen by millions of Vietnamese, turning into a cornerstone of that country's new glasnost.  Dying of cancer, the cameraman Dong Xuan Thuyet asks his friends to make a film on the subject of "tu-te" - human relations, fraternity or, simply, kindness. Thus charged, the filmmakers explore the realities behind the nationalistic slogans to reveal troubling scenes of Vietnamese life in a society which, although not without hope, seems no longer able to define humanitarianism - or greed for that matter. 

***ALL FILMS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC*** 
HENRY R. LUCE HALL 
AUDITORIUM 101 
34 HILLHOUSE AVENUE 
(intermissions/refreshments/discussion in the Luce Hall Common Room)