The Documentary
Phantom Roots is a family road memoir that honors the Vietnamese diaspora.
By connecting elements of coastal & desert landscape with ancestral homeland, acts of remembrance are imbued with radiant resilience.
Serenaded by the song of our grandmother’s lyrical testimony, the Vietnamese-American generations
that follow encounter self acceptance and the courage to risk liberation from historical trauma.
Ghosts can be known and met with welcoming arms.
The project is a visual diary of the journey taken to reconnect with lost heritage, living memory
and magic.
As a grassroots documentary filmmaker, Erica is motivated to collaborate
through mutual self study. Her interdisciplinary background frames this introspective
process around how estrangement from our origins manifests in our bodies.
A Vietnamese- American raised in California, Erica belongs to the modern diaspora that seeks to transform generational hurt into a reclaimed sense of belonging.
She is based in the high desert of New Mexico, alongside the Nambé Pueblo.
Director Erica Nguyen
Tintype by Conor Martin
Zine Corner
Photo by Carolina Mama