Director's Biography

Nguyen Phuc Khang was born and raised in San Jose, California. From his early childhood, he struggled with maintaining his identity and wanting to fully assimilate into the American culture because Vietnamese people were underrepresented in media, which made it difficult to learn more about the Vietnamese culture and heritage. However, through deeper discussions with his father and his learning about Asian-Americans in the U.S., he has gained profound ideas to tell stories of Vietnamese people.

Director's Statement

I hope that my film can help my generation and future generations have a glimpse of the hardships that the elder generation had to face. These events, amongst other cultural issues, might have had an effect on their ability to cope with trauma. However, it does not absolve them of recognizing and understanding who we are as well.

Simultaneously, in my community, we have the elder population who side with anti-immigration policies without remembering that they were once in this position of seeking refuge in foreign countries and losing their motherland to a regime. I hope this piece serves as a reminder for the elder generation that their
experiences are very closely related and that our resilience to adapt to a new world can also be fully utilized by other ethnic groups facing similar traumatic experiences.