Bolsavik.com

The ongoing, once-a-week-every-week Vietnamese-American protesters targeting Viet Weekly magazine today got a surprise sprung on them by a number of business owners on Garden Grove’s Historic Main Street.

The first irony is that, while Nguoi Viet newspaper was targeted by protesters and accused of being communist tools, Nguoi Viet itself every week would print the call-out by a different group of protesters accusing Viet Weekly of being communist stooges.

Confused? Geez. Where would you be without the Bolsavik? Let’s do it again.

First, you keep the two publications apart. Nguoi Viet is a daily published in Westminster; Viet Weekly is a weekly published in Garden Grove. Now, on to the situation at hand:

Group A accuses Nguoi Viet of being communists. All the protesters previously mentioned by the Bolsavik - Ky Ngo, Trong Doan, Cung The Tran, etc., they’re all in Group A.

Group B accuses Viet Weekly of being communists. Before today, the Bolsavik has not said a word about Group B.

Groups A and B used to be friends but now they ain’t talkin’.

Every week, Nguoi Viet prints Group B’s announcement calling people to join them in Garden Grove. This practice actually dates back from when the Bolsavik was still there.

For that matter, in an interview with the L.A. Times’ Dana Parsons here, Nguoi Viet’s editor Anh Do also called Group A communists.

If everyone’s right, then that leaves Group B, the people outside Viet Weekly, as the only non-communists in town.

But the Bolsavik is digressing.

Back to Historic Main Street, where Group B has been holding weekly protests at 3pm each Saturday since last summer. Numbers vary from a dozen to close to a hundred, depending.

As more than 20 protesters assembled outside the empty offices of Viet Weekly, a handful of business owners gathered across the small cobblestoned street. They watched, and they waited.

At 3 o’clock, the protesters began playing Vietnamese patriotic songs on their speaker. Immediately, across the way, the business owners blasted American patriotic music, starting with the Stars and Stripes Forever.

Thus began the battle of the speakers.

Then the business owners unfurled the banner

And it read:

Well, that took care of Group B. Now everybody’s a commie.

John E. Scott, EA (circled), who runs a tax preparation and accouting office and is the owner of the banner, explained his action to the Bolsavik:

“It’s my banner, because I’m the one most affected by this disruption of my business. With their noise and their protest, I cannot get any work done on Saturday. My customers can’t come, we can’t hear ourselves talk in my office.”

Scott Weimer (first photo, standing next to speaker), the owner of the building housing Viet Weekly’s offices, said that the protests have “disrupted everybody’s livelihood, their businesses, chased away customers. We have been in this area for a long time and we have never seen behavior like this.”

Between Mr. John E. Scott and the Bolsavik, however, they have a huge point of disagreement. The Bolsavik maintains that “protester” is the correct spelling.

Helloooooo Bolsavik readers!!

Jenni Trang Le here, and I must say it is an honor to be invited by the “notorious” Bolsavik to contribute directly on his blog =)

ok, then on to Washington DC where I arrived EARLY this morning (took a 6:30am flight arriving in DC at 8:30am) and walked right into the Owl and the Sparrow (photo below right) screening. Owl (written/directed by Stephane Gauger) screened at 9am.  And about 50-60 people managed to wake up for it!  Now THAT’S commitment.  The response was thunderous (as usual).  It really spoke to the audience…

I went up for Q&A with Stephane (I was an Assistant Director on the project) and we got questions like, “What the best memory working in VN?”  ”Where did you find your actors?”  So many memories, but we talked about the challenges with working with animals… originally we wanted to cast the Tiger, but the Tiger at the Saigon Zoo is SUPER LAZY and only moves ONCE a day to eat a slab of meat.  So we ended up with the elephant.  In terms of the actors, they were all from Viet Nam except for Cat Ly, whom Stephane knew from Journey from the Fall (Ham Tran).  Stephane wanted to make sure all the actors were “tu nhien” … very natural… none of the usual overacting that is so common amongst Vietnamese actors.  And he achieved it!

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We then went straight to the Filmmaking Panel with Stephane, Le-Van Kiet (photo left - director of Dust of Life), and myself.  Originally Doan Hoang (Oh Saigon!) was supposed to be on, but she ended up not making it.  

The panel went well!  It was a small group, but very intimate… at one point we turned the tables on the audience and asked them what THEY wanted to see from us filmmakers.  One said “musical comedy”… another said “better marketing”.  Aside from Journey from the Fall, they didn’t know about any other films…. another said they can’t stand artsy films like Tran Anh Hung’s Vertical Ray of the Sun… to Anh Hung’s defense, I loved that film… but you know, different strokes for different folks… Another student said while she liked films that tell us about what our parents went through, she’s like to see more films that tell our parents what WE’ve been through or are going through.

(Note: Dust of Life is one of these)

Another student spoke about wanting a film that he can watch with his parents.. such as Journey from the Fall… although he admitted his dad loved Buffalo Boy (Nguyen-Vo Nghiem-Minh) but he did not particularly enjoy it.

We then of course talked about PIRACY — and its EVILness.  And one person asked how we filmmakers survive with piracy out there… and we said, it’s hard!  Of course it hurts us, especially since we’re all just starting out and our Vietnamese diasporic film community is SO tiny!  As Kiet jokingly said, wait ’til we’re bigger and THEN pirate us.

A question came up about the lack of Asian American faces in the media… and especially Vietnamese American faces.  I told them they have to look at things in perspective.  You can’t compare us to African Americans and Latinos… we’re much newer — ESPECIALLY Vietnamese.  We’ve only been here for 33 years… small potatoes!  Many people are just NOW beginning to tell their stories…. and we’re playing catch up in terms of film/television/theatre.  Many artists get the strength to pursue the arts (and ultimately rebel against their parents) in their 20’s.  In terms of the entertainment industry, that’s a late start.

So be patient everyone… we’re gettin’ there.  The beauty of the Vietnamese American film posse — the Viet Film Wave — is that we’re all very supportive of each other.  When Ham Tran starting working on Journey from the Fall and when Charlie Nguyen started working on The Rebel (photo right), the Bui brothers (Tim & Tony, Three Seasons and Green Dragon) were right there to help them out!  It’s not about competition with us (unlike those cutthroat Vietnamese business owners) but instead, if one person succeeds, we ALL succeed.

Kiet was saying that when he was shooting DUST OF LIFE 3 years ago, he only knew Ham (they went to UCLA film school together)… and they thought they were the only 2 VN filmmakers!  But look at us now!  I added that compared to the inaugural year of ViFF in 2003 where we were struggling to find ONE feature to show… we ended up screening THIRTEEN features in 2007 after actually having to REJECT a few features!  So by numbers alone, you can see the acceleration…

on a personal level….

Stephane is working on his next Viet Nam-based script but he is also possibly taking on some studio films (all this is in the works)

Kiet is working on his next feature script to be shot this summer and then a TV show (Vietnamese American drama) later on this year… possibly the first of its kind!

I’m working on different projects.. Chris McIntyre’s 21 AND A WAKEUP - a VN war film in the POV of an American nurse, Victor Vu’s next comedic romance film in the summer, Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s TV series in Viet Nam, Dustin Nguyen’s feature film debut MONK ON FIRE at the end of the year… in the middle of all this, I’m planning on writing a short film to shoot in the US and then one to shoot in VN.

It’s exciting times!  As Stephane says… Viet Nam is the Wild West — anything can happen.

OH and other big news… Stephane, Ham Tran, Tim Bui, Ken Nguyen, and Nguyen “Wyn” Tran are forming a distribution company called Wave Releasing… focused on acquiring and distributing Vietnamese and Vietnamese Diasporic films!  OWL AND THE SPARROW will be their first big project!  Hooray for more support in our community!  But notice the core group are all men…. quite the opposite of the ViFF Women Warriors… hmmmm.  ;)

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Then we had a screening of “Oh Mommy! (Me Oi!)” — my claymation short film followed by DUST OF LIFE.  Audience reaction was good…. they asked about the meaning of my film in my perspective — all the animals in my film speak different languages and yet all understood each other.  This is my idea of utopia — it’s all about communication, baby.

Xuyen Dong-Matsuda was completely moved by DUST OF LIFE… highly praised the 2 leads, Devon Duy Nguyen and Mai Nguyen…. and was quite overcome with emotion by the end of it.  

Peace out… will try to write more later as the news happens…. Right now people are preparing for Closing ceremonies and then the Gala and then I will perform and then VASCON LIVE.  Talk about JAM PACKED.  Good job, organizers!

Ah, these impressionable youngin’s.

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Jenni Trang Le, The Bolsavik’s contributing editor, is a Jane of all trades: A spoken-words artist, a filmmaker, a stage actor, … She was First Assistant Director on Stephane Gauger’s The Owl and the Sparrow and also 1st AD on Charlie Nguyen’s runaway Vietnamese blockbuster The Rebel. Jenni Trang Le has also worked as stage managers for numerous live productions in the U.S. She can also be found backstage on such Viet mega productions as Asia, Paris By Night, and Van Son. Her animated short Me Oi! (Oh Mommy) is now making the festival circuit.

Yesterday evening was nice for the Bolsavik. First, he was at the Borders bookstore in South Coast Plaza watching a young Vietnamese-American singer/songwriter perform from her upcoming CD. Then he joined up with Duc Nguyen, the director of Bolinao 52, for late-night pho to celebrate the successful screening and panel discussion of his boat people documentary at Chapman University.

Fatima has a very unique ethnic heritage. Her full name is Fatima Mougammadou. Her father is part Vietnamese, part Indian (as in South Asian), and a Muslim. Her mother is Vietnamese and Buddhist.

Fatima’s album Layers is also unique. It features several well-known Vietnamese pop melodies with English lyrics written by Fatima herself.

At Borders, Fatima also sang two of the Bolsavik’s favorite American classics: The Shadow of Your Smile and Moon River.

The title song Layers is Fatima’s English version of Con Gio Thoang by Quoc Dung. Quoc Dung and Fatima’s mother Thanh Mai used to be a hot duet item in pre-communist Vietnam. More or less Vietnam’s answer to Sonny and Cher. Except that Thanh Mai was a cute teenager with a bright sunny voice and not like Cher at all.

Fatima has some of her songs up on her MySpace here.

Political news of the past week is that Dina Nguyen (photo, right), the Garden Grove councilwoman challenging Janet Nguyen (photo, left) for the Orange County 1st District supervisorial seat, hired JohnsonClark & Associates, commonly considered the top Republican political consultant in the state. JCA ran several successful campaigns, among which Van Tran’s first assembly race.

OK that was the news. Now here’s the wrinkle:

Just heard on Red County, the conservative blog here, the opinion by veteran Republican pollster Adam Probolsky that JCA only signed with Dina Nguyen as a favor for Mike Schroeder, the local Republican boss and consigliere to the Van Tran camp. Quote:

“I believe their involvement is a favor to Mike Schroeder, not necessarily any, you know, excitement over Dina’s campaign or the fact that they think they can win or the fact that they think they can make money off of this thing. I think it’s, you know, Mike says I need you to put your name on this campaign and that’s what they did.”

Nonetheless, host Jubal a.k.a. Matt Cunningham said that with JohnsonClark on board he’s more confident Dina can force Janet into a runoff, than without JohnsonClark.

In an unprecedented first, this year’s election for Orange County’s highest elected office features an all-Vietnamese-American cast. In addition to Dina and Janet on the Republican side, the lone Democratic candidate is Hoa Van Tran, an attorney in the law offices of Do Phu & Anh Tuan. “Do Phu” is Phu Do Nguyen, now Hoa’s campaign treasurer. Read more here and here.

The election is nonpartisan, so voters can vote for any of the candidates regardless of party affiliation at the primary on June 3. If no candidate can receive a majority of the votes, the top two go into a runoff in November, something Probolsky thought would work to Dina’s advantage: She could go back to the donors who already maxed out on her, to ask for more.