THE FILMMAKER

I see now that my direction as a filmmaker is blossoming into a body of work that centers the outsider experience. For those of us who straddle various worlds, I want to understand where the root of our suffering and joy resides. How do we recognize ourselves while moving between spaces authentically? What forms of communication do we use to transcend otherness? Where does estrangement from our origins manifest

in our bodies?

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As a Vietnamese-American living rurally in the Southwest, the driving force in my life has been to collaborate through mutual self study. For me,

the medium of film is a mirror that opens the floor for real people to model how they share their truths; in turn sparking boldness to find our own courage as storytellers. The brave choice that compels the project at hand is about taking ownership of my personal story as a child of refugees. 

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My growth as a storyteller has been enriched by working in the field of outdoor behavioral health, particularly with Native folks in recovery.

As a therapeutic adventure facilitator, I drew out insights related to the group & individual’s unique access to resilience, using metaphors embedded in challenging experiences. In these co-created programs, the participants also taught me how re-connection to culture is an abundant catalyst

for healing. As I endeavor to explore my family’s legacy in Phantom Roots, I am fortunate to feel equipped with a set of diverse grounding skills

to meet the subject of generational trauma with compassionate resourcefulness. 

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My interdisciplinary studies at UC Berkeley was a convergence of Socio-Cultural Anthropology, Ethnographic Film, and Sociolinguistics.

Since 2012 I have organized audiovisual engagement and education for my communities, participated in a collective for Peruvian documentary activism, and archived stories related to Pueblo traditional skills. Occupying the roles of director, producer, and editor, I completed my first feature documentary Shadow Weavers (2020). Within the outdoor skills & land stewardship realm, I moonlight as a traditional rock climbing instructor in Joshua Tree National Park and New Mexico. Among my harm reduction practices is restorative ear acupuncture or Acu-detox. 

 

See full filmography & CV HERE

 

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THE IMPACT

Trinh T. Minh-ha asks in Surname Viet Given Name Nam, “But if I don’t have roots, why have my roots made me suffer so?”

Today’s AAPI community faces staggering mental health challenges. With young femmes and those over 65 passing at a higher rate than any other racial/ ethnic group, our minority stands alone as a category in which suicide is the leading cause of death. I believe these tragic outcomes

are manifestations of pervasive disconnect, and by revisiting the determination of our heritage we can be less alone. Thus, Phantom Roots examines generational trauma: the notion that ancestral wounds can transfer to descendents who physiologically carry the shadow of unknown burdens.

This film also believes that fortitude is inherited and therefore uplifts representations of resilience on a personal and community-wide scale.

Not simply as another token of the times, but a tool to repair lives. 

 

An estimated 1.5 million Vietnamese people entered refugeehood as a result of the Vietnam War. What surfaces when we acknowledge the refugee-settler experience? As opposed to the paradigms of settler-colonialism, forced resettlement is not fertile grounds for personal agency.

What choices have been made for us as first and second generation Vietnamese-Americans, and what do we choose for ourselves? 

This documentary can begin to celebrate refuge seekers in a way that coverage of refugee crises do not. I wish to contribute hopefulness around communities of survivors like Little Saigon, who have been engaged in transforming displacement into belonging.

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THE TASK 

Phantom Roots is currently in mid-production with a final filming taking place in Vietnam (spring 2025). It will involve collaborating with

traditional musicians, folkloric puppeteers, and a local set crew for recreations on 16mm Bolex film.

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Traveling water puppetry performances were traditionally acted out in the rice fields as a prayer for abundant harvests to come,

not unlike a rain dance. The artform sprung from my grandmother’s Red River Delta region of Nam Dinh, where performers waded into rice paddies and viewers gathered around makeshift theatrical pagodas. Bamboo puppets then danced on the water to dramatic, cacophonous musicals.  

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The original cinematic performances to be documented are based on personal testimony that has survived the displacement of war.

My grandmother Xuan’s diary surfaced in her mid 50’s, following the Fall of Saigon and an expedited relocation to California. She became literate with the help of her teenage sons (including my father). At the kitchen table she reflected on her first experience of homelessness, when she chose orphanhood over an arranged marriage as a young girl- a choice that eventually brought my generation to light. 

Writing comforted the isolating reality of refugeehood. Despite a lifetime of homesickness, her inner world was richly colored by folk poetry.

So much so that she constructed her memory using an alternating verse form called lục bát. Thus the source material for new musical compositions from which I draw, with puppet characters in her likeness.

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The narrative arc begins with a ritual.

Honoring the rich culture of Vietnamese paper making and ancestor worship, I deliver my grandmother’s printed handwriting into the water

that will stage the reenactment of her overnight transition to adulthood. The film closes with a meditative verite scene (digital format)

of planting rice with my family in our home village. Scaling out to an aerial view, we trace the confluence of where the brown rivers that irrigate these fields and the crisp blue ocean meet. A quiet invitation for contemplation of how people are infused with cultural contrasts as whole beings who experience self acceptance despite diffusion.

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Phantom Roots is delivered in textured fragments, because the nature of diaspora cast us to the wind to sprout from varied soil.

As a second generation Vietnamese-American, I feel the wounds of cultural erasure calling for reconstruction. The film gathers the debris by reimaging family archives with a format true to their time. Blending digital footage, VHS and film is an intentional act to bridge multi-generational gaps. This ambitious portion of the feature is a playfully intimate encounter that ultimately sets a tone of enchantment for the rest to unfold. ​

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This full circle memoir initiates viewers to become immersed in the muddy waters of an origin story, and witness the continuity we as diasporic communities carry forward today- not unlike the lotus, which births beauty from hardship. It asks, what is the legacy of how we choose to be free?

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ALLOCATION

Crew= $36,450

Director, Co-Producer, Assistant Director/ Translator, Production Photographer 

Vietnam Production team: Director of Photography, Aerial Cinematographer, Sound Recorder, Lighting Technician

Permit coordinator + Location clearances

[Includes: Compensation, travel, transportation, housing, meals]

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Music + Theatrical Collaborators= $6,500

Poet-composer, Musicians, Recording Studio + Sound Engineer/ Mixer, Water Puppetry Troupe, Prop Master, Set Designer 

[Includes: Composing, rehearsing, professional recording, set development, choreography, etc.]

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Equipment= $2,050

16mm film + processing fees

[Includes: rentals/ insurance]​

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GOAL to complete production and transition to post-production 

$50,000

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IN RETURN

Tax deductible donations can be accepted through these channels:

1. The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is a New Mexican nonprofit organization dedicated to the exchange of ideas through contemporary art and supports artists’ practices through exhibitions, performances, research, and publications for a public audience.               

2. Visual Communications is a California nonprofit organization and our official fiscal sponsor. Their mission is to develop and support the voices of Asian American & Pacific Islander filmmakers and media artists who empower communities and challenge perspectives.                   * Grant-based

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All donors will be listed in the film credits as benefactors, and are invited to a private test screening where first cuts of footage

from Vietnam can be viewed.  

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Contributions of $10,000 will receive a Special Thank You credit, and are invited to a final test screening of the rough cut before release.

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Contributors of $20,000 or more will be credited as Executive Producers, and are invited to a final test screening of the rough cut before release.

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