Monday, April 23, 2007

Vietnamese International Film Festival, Irvine CA

Chủ nhật qua Thư đa attend the last day of the Vietnamese International Film Festival at University of California Irvine. This is a biennial event. The festival bắt đầu từ April 12 và đã chiếu 51 films, including 13 features made by filmmakers of Viet descent from around the world. These films project a wide range of themes and genres, reflecting the experiences and issues that are important to diasporic as well as national Viet filmmakers.

Thư muốn share với các bạn cái documentary titled "Bolinao 52." This was about a Vietnamese refugee boat which drifted in the South China Seas for 19 days, encountered a US Navy ship along its course, but the captain of the ship refused to help them. After being afloat for such a long time, half of the passengers on the boat started to die. For the sake of survival, some survivors resorted to cannibalism. Out of 110, only 52 refugees survived when Filipino fishermen from Bolinao saved them. The subject was certainly depressing but this documentary turned out to be a story of fate, survival, and most importantly, forgiveness and healing. It is a very important piece of history of the Vietnamese refugees. This documentary will be shown on television (PBS) in 2008 và Thu would highly recommend các bạn in the US to watch it. You may even want to see it with your kids. It would be a great opportunity for us 1.5 generation to open dialogues with our kids về our refugee experiences.

Các bạn Nam Cali ơi, perhaps we can all attend the film festival together in 2009? Chim ở Bắc Cali và 4 phương nữa nhé. Thư thấy cuốn film đang in development titled Kingdom of Au Lac khá hấp dẫn!

Thân mến,
Kim Thư

No comments: