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
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 múa rối nướcTreasure map fold out zine featuring a water puppetry pagoda with with me and my 2 siblings as puppets floating in the stage pond. The dragon's plume of smoke forms the country of Vietnam, where we see 2 fish representative of my grandparents. Who were Northern born but migrated South, before fleeing to the West for sanctuary. The white fish that is headed East completes the loop, returning to our ancestral home on a pilgrimage in 2022. Illustration by Lux Meteora (luxmeteora.com) |  Mini fold out zine showcasing a lived story from our family's pilgrimage to Vietnam. Returning to the old haunt of a neighborhood altered, and the surviving star fruit tree that remains watchful. Illustration by Lux Meteora (luxmeteora.com) |
 Sketch of my father's kite fishing techniques off the coast of Southern California. Flying fish bait is used in true marionette fashion to lure giant bluefin tuna. Yet another scene to invigorate the ties that bind each generation of the Vietnamese diaspora to both past & present. Illustration by Lux Meteora (luxmeteora.com) |
Photo by Carolina Mama