Vietnamese American Journey
A KTEH Presentation
Airs Wednesdays at 9pm
View complete list of repeat broadcasts
Tune in for a month of special films highlighting the Vietnamese American Journey, from the fall of Saigon, to the search for the American Dream, to preserving their history for the new generations. Watch host K. Oanh Ha discuss the films with some of the filmmakers, subjects and audiences.
The Fall of Saigon
Airs Wednesday, April 9, 2008 at 9pm
This film is an account of the final two years of US involvement in Vietnam. Originally broadcast in 1983 as part of the landmark series, Vietnam: A Television History, this one-hour special shows in vivid detail the desperation of the final days before Saigon fell, and the full-scale evacuation led by the US military.
Film website: www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/
Oh Saigon
Airs Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 9pm
World television premiere
Filmmaker Doan Hoang's family was airlifted on April 30, 1975 on the last helicopter out of Vietnam. Twenty-five years later, Hoang sets out to uncover her family's story. Along the way she discovers some hidden secrets. Her sister, Van, separated from the family during the escape, was forced to find her own path to the United States. Hoang's father, who was a major in South Vietnamese Army, has two brothers still living in Vietnam, one who became a pacifist and one who fought on the Communist side. The film shows how one refugee family attempts to survive the physical and emotional wounds of the conflict in Vietnam by healing political differences, and by having faith in family.
Film website: www.ohsaigon.com
Saigon, U.S.A.
Airs Wednesday, April 23, 2008 at 9pm
A documentary portrait about struggles over identity in the heart of a Vietnamese American community, Southern California's, Little Saigon. The film starts with an explosive political conflict - fifty two days of protests over a shopkeeper's display of the communist flag and Ho Chi Minh. The film then delves into the passions underlying the protests by following members of the older generation who still suffer from the loss of their homeland and members of the younger generation who are chasing the American dream.
Film website: home.earthlink.net/~saigonusa/
Bolinao 52
Airs Wednesday, April 30, 2008 at 9pm
Exclusive World Television Premiere only on KTEH
Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, millions refugees took a perilous escape route across the South China Sea to find freedom. Many died of drowning or starvation and thirst. Others were lost at sea, or robbed and killed by pirates. More than 30 years later, no major film or television program has told their stories. Bolinao 52 presents this long-silenced voice, an unspoken legacy of the Vietnam War, the story of the Vietnamese Boat People. Filmmaker Duc Nguyen, himself a boat refugee, retraces the odyssey of the Bolinao 52 - a vessel adrift on the sea for 37 days -- deserted by the USS Dubuque -- and finally rescued by Pilipino fisherman.
Film website: www.bolinao52.com
Watch Interviews
Host, K. Oanh Ha, discusses the films with some of the filmmakers, subjects and audiences.
Loc Vu and Hien Do
Loc Vu, director of the Boat People Museum in San Jose, and Hien Do, professor from San Jose State University are interviewed about the fall of Saigon. Mr. Vu was a colonel in the South Vietnamese Army and shares his recollections as a soldier. Dr. Do was a teen aged student at the time and escaped Vietnam a few days before April 30, 1975 by airplane. Both discuss the second mass exodus of Vietnamese refugees - the Boat People. Mr. Vu also explains why the Boat People Museum at San Jose's Kelley Park was started.
Hien Do
A conversation with Hien Do, professor from San Jose State University about the events in the film that happened in 1999, in Westminister, Orange County. Dr. Do and K.Oanh Ha also discuss recent protests in San Jose about the renaming of a stretch of Story Road to "Little Saigon" or "Saigon Business District" and the often painful emotions behind both the 1999 protests and what occurred in San Jose.
Digital Clubhouse Students
The next generation of story recorders from the Digital Clubhouse Network of Silicon Valley are interviewed about their Vietnamese American Heritage Project. Students include Ben Le, age 17, Jennifer Le, age 12, Diane Nguyen, age 19, and Cang Le, age 21. These young people have gone out into the Vietnamese community and recorded the stories of both family members and total strangers. They then produce them as short multimedia documentaries that are shown as community events, libraries, and schools. To learn more about the Digital Clubhouse Network and to view some of their stories including those from the Vietnamese American Heritage project, go to: www.digiclub.org/sv.
Duc Nguyen and Tung Trinh
K. Oanh Ha interviews Bolinao 52 filmmaker Duc Nguyen and boat survivor, Tung Trinh, the woman featured in the film. Duc Nguyen explains why he felt driven, as a boat refugee himself, to tell this story. Tung Trinh boarded the boat that became known as the Bolinao 52 in 1988, with her young five year old son, Lam, never realizing the ordeal that they would both endure. The refugees hoped to make it to the South China Sea to be picked up by passing ships. Only two days out, the engine died, and soon food and water ran out and over half of the 110 refugees perished from the hunger, thirst and exposure. Their boat drifted for thirty-seven days before the Pilipino fisherman from the town of Bolinao rescued the refugees. Tung Trinh recounts a remarkable story of survival and the power of the human spirit.