HOW TO GET INVOLVED
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?
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.
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.
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
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.
IN RETURN
Tax deductible donations can be accepted through these channels:
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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.
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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
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.
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.
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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