If you’re into modern films, especially Viet films that don’t look like copies of Hong Kong or Korean soaps, check out this press release from VAALA and the Bowers Museum (2002 N. Main St, Santa Ana , CA 92706):

Viet Film Wave Series at Bowers Museum :

Symposium with Filmmakers Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo,

Stephane Gauger and Lam Nguyen

Friday, May 9, 2008 from 7:30 – 9:30 p.m.

www.vaala.org & www.bowers.org

Santa Ana, Calif. – The Viet Film Wave series at the Bowers Museum will culminate in a symposium with Filmmakers Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo (director of Buffalo Boy), Stephane Gauger (director of Owl and the Sparrow) and Lam Nguyen (producer of Journey from the Fall).  The event will take place on Friday May 6, 2008 from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in the gorgeous Norma Kershaw Auditorium at Bowers Museum, 2002 N. Main St, Santa Ana , CA 92706, telephone: (714) 567-3695.  The museum will host a reception from 7:30-8:00 p.m.   Admission fee (including the reception): $5.  Tickets will be available at the door. 

The Bowers Museum in conjunction with the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) presents THE VIET FILM WAVE, a compelling three-film series and symposium with the filmmakers.  The films in the series were Owl and the Sparrow, Journey from the Fall, and Buffalo Boy on April 6, April 20, and May 4, respectively.  Today’s Vietnamese American filmmaking reflects the vibrant movement to go beyond the scope of the mainstream’s telling of Vietnam and toward illustrating the dynamic Vietnamese experience itself.  The three films selected transmit these stories through the lens of talented and devoted filmmakers, screenwriters and actors. 

Panelists’ Bios

Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo
Writer/Director

Nguyen-Vo grew up in a small town in Vietnam during the war.  To escape the fighting and atrocities, he spent a great deal of his youth in the only one-room movie theater in town that was managed by his parents.  Except when there was fighting, he was able to watch at least one film every week from around the world. 

After high school, he was awarded a scholarship to Université de Poitiers , France .  He continued his education in the United States at UCLA and graduated with a Ph.D. in applied physics.   Now living in the globalized Los Angeles and returning to Vietnam regularly, he is trying to transcend the differences in these two worlds.

“Buffalo Boy” is Nguyen-Vo’s first feature.  It has received many awards around the world:

* FIPRESCI Award for best foreign language submissions to the Academy Award, 2006, Palm Springs International Film Festival, United States .

* Youth Prize, Locarno International Film Festival , Switzerland , World Premier.

* Best Director Award, Cape Town World Cinema Festival , South Africa .

* Best Director Award, Vietnamese film festival, Hanoi, Vietnam

* Best New Director Award, Silver Hugo, Chicago International Film Festival, United States.

* Grand Prize, Golden Unicorn Award, Amiens International Film Festival , France.

* Grand Prize, Asian Marine Film Festival, Makuhari , Japan.

* First Jury Prize, Amazonas International Film Festival , Brazil.

* Best Cinematography Award, 50th Asian Pacific Film Festival, Kula Lumpur , Malaysia.

* Best Film of 2005, Cultural Center, Hanoi , Vietnam

* Culture and Art Award in Cinema, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Stephane Gauger
Writer/Director

Born in Saigon and raised in Orange County , Calif. , Gauger received a bachelors degree in theatre and French literature. He subsequently worked in the camera and lighting departments on independent films in the United States and Southeast Asia , including Sundance winner Three Seasons, all the while honing his writing and directing craft on short narrative and documentary films. 

Owl and the Sparrow, his feature debut, received nine awards at film festivals in 2007, including the audience award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and best narrative feature at the Asian Film Festivals of San Francisco, San Diego and Dallas .  Gauger was nominated for Breakthrough director at New York ’s Gotham awards as well as the John Cassavetes awards at the Independent Spirit Awards.  He is now in post-production on Vietnam Overtures, a documentary on Vietnam ’s classical music scene.

Lam Nguyen
Producer

Lam Nguyen was born in Vinh Long, Vietnam where he grew up until his family moved to the United States in 1989. In 1996, he won the Student Emmy Award and the Chicago International Award for his short film Nostalgic.

One of the founders of NonLa Films, Nguyen has directed over 40 music videos and produced for Van Son Entertainment since 1996. In 1999, he joined the Club O’ Noodles Theatre Group, where he met Ham Tran and produced Ham’s M.F.A thesis film The Anniversary, which has won over 25 international awards, in addition to being on the top 10 list for the 2004 Academy Awards®.

Nguyen said, “It’s important for me to make Journey from the Fall because the new generation of Vietnamese youth must remember where they came from and why. Journey is a historical film that needs to be told to the world.”

Documentary film “Bolinao 52,” a moving story of a boat person going back to the place of the greatest tragedy in her life, will be shown at the the Folino Theater at the Chapman Film School tomorrow, April 4, at 5:30 p.m. The address is 283 N. Cypress St., Orange, CA 92866. Mapquest here.

Directed by Duc Nguyen, the documentary film follows Tung Trinh as she re-lives the horrors of a trip on dingy fishing boat escaping communist Vietnam. The tiny craft in which was crowded 110 people lost its engine. Passing ships ignored them, and after 19 days a U.S. Navy vessel stopped and provided them with water and fuel, but the captain refused to pick up the dying refugees. After 37 days at sea, only 52 survived to land in the Philippines. They had had to resort to cannibalism to survive.

The showing is free and sponsored by the Vietnamese-American Law Student Association (VALSA). Speaking after the screening will be director Duc Nguyen; Chapman Law School’s Associate Dean Timothy Canova; and Professor Marisa Cianciarulo, Director of Chapman’s Family Violence Clinic.

Next: The Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and Bowers Museum present THE VIET FILM WAVE, a compelling three-film series and symposium with the filmmakers, with the first screening scheduled for this Sunday.

The screenings at the Bowers are not free. According to a press release from VAALA, “admission for screenings is $10 general and $8 for Bowers Museum ’s members; $5 for film symposium.”

The screenings and the symposium will be held in the gorgeous Norma Kershaw Auditorium at Bowers Museum , 2002 N. Main St, Santa Ana , CA 92706, Telephone: 714-567-3695. Mapquest here. Tickets will be available at the door.

The three films featured in the Viet Film Wave series are: The Owl and the Sparrow (director Stephane Gauger, whose mother is Vietnamese), Journey from the Fall (director Ham Tran), and Buffalo Boy (director Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo).

Excerpts from VAALA’s press release, about the films and the symposium with the filmmakers:

Sunday, April 6 – 3:30PM
OWL AND THE SPARROW (Cú và Chim Se S?) (poster shown at left)
Vietnam/USA 2007/90 minutes/Vietnamese with English subtitles/Stephane Gauger, Writer and Director; Orange Country Premiere
A modern-day Saigon tale of the encounter between a lonely zookeeper, a beautiful flight attendant looking for love, and the young girl, a runaway, who brings them all together. Universal in its story, particular in its vibrant scenes of Vietnam , this is the poignant tale of yearning, love, and commitment.
Admission: general $10; members $8

Sunday, April 20 – 3:30PM
JOURNEY FROM THE FALL (V??t Sóng) (photo right, as featured on Saigon Houston Weekly magazine)
Thailand/USA 2005/134 minutes/Vietnamese with English subtitles/Ham Tran, Director
Inspired by the true story of Vietnamese refugees, the film follows one family’s struggle for freedom as they flee their country after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and chronicles those who were forced to stay behind. Journey from the Fall has won over ten awards at film festivals around the world and Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called it, “A movingly rendered, stirringly photographed first feature.”
Admission: general $10; members $8

Sunday, May 4 – 3:30PM
BUFFALO BOY (Mùa Len Trâu) (photo below)
France , Belgium , Vietnam 2004/102 minutes/Vietnamese with English subtitles/Directed by Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo
In this powerful coming-of-age story set in rural 1940s Vietnam , a young man from a poor family is sent by his father to find grass for their two starving buffalos. Before long, he takes up with a rough and dangerous band of buffalo herders and discovers freedom, adventure, and love—but also secrets about his past that will change his life forever.
Admission: general $10; members $8

Friday, May 9
7:30 PM Reception
8:00 PM Symposium
VIET FILM WAVE: SYMPOSIUM
As a culmination of the Viet Film Wave series, this special evening brings the directors, Stephane Gauger, Ham Tran, and Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo, and some of the films’ cast members together for a time of dialogue, discussion, and shared responses to the three films screened at the Bowers. The museum will host a reception prior to the symposium.
Admission: $5