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Showtimes Sat March 13 5:45 PM / KAB313F
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USA, 1998, 57 mins, video,
color, English & Vietnamese w/e.s.
Producer/Director/Writer/Editor M. Trinh NGUYEN (in person); Assistant Producer/Project Assistant Thu M. NGUYEN; Videographers Huu LE, Thu M.NGUYEN; Assistant Writers Jeffery A. JOHNSON, Sonny LE
M. Trinh Nguyen (XÍCH-LÔ, SFIAAFF 1996) battles cultural assumptions and government censorship as she travels to Vietnam to document her great-uncle’s folk medicine practice and in the process, preserve an aspect of her pre-colonial Vietnamese heritage.
The modernization of Vietnam has left little room for so-called "backward" traditions like folk medicine treatments. Nguyen faced opposition from Vietnamese government officials who initially refused to issue a customs release allowing her footage to leave the country. She even found distrust of these humble treatments among her relatives, now living in the United States, who dismissed them as "voodoo."
To separate truth from folklore, Nguyen observes her great-uncle’s practice firsthand, documenting treatments for tumors and tracking down patients who were cured of gangrene and leprosy. Although her original intent was to investigate the effectiveness of the medicine master’s cures, Nguyen realizes during the process that she has unwittingly become his apprentice. With few other students to carry on his legacy, her great-uncle hopes that part of his knowledge might live on through her.
—Sandra Yoshizuka
preceded by
USA, 1998, 21 minutes, 16mm, color, English & Korean w/e.s.;
Director Greg PAK (in person)
In this award-winning documentary, the filmmaker searches through family interviews, photographs and home movies for evidence of love between his immigrant Korean grandparents.
—Anita Chang
Presented with Film Arts Foundation