Browse Films

When two American sisters travel north from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, conversations with Vietnamese strangers and friends reveal to them the flip side of a shared history.  Lynne and Dana Sachs' travel diary of their trip to Vietnam is a collection of tourism, city life, culture clash, and historic inquiry that’s put together with the warmth of a quilt.  The film starts as a road trip and flowers into a political discourse, combining Vietnamese parables, history and memories of the people the sisters met, as well as their own childhood memories of the war on TV. (The Independent)

"Subtly explores and cleverly challenges Vietnam's place in the American mind. The film's provocative reflections on war, memory and collective guilt and on the multiple ways in which both Americans and Vietnamese understand the dramatic intersection in their histories makes it an ideal discussion generator for college courses."
Prof. Peter Zinoman, Department of History, University of California at Berkeley

"A sophisticated and culturally sensitive work that captures the essence of a country in transition. I highly recommend this film for all students of the war and modern Southeast Asia."
Prof. Robert Brigham, Department of History, Vasser College

"Brings up questions about what we see, how we see it, and who's doing the seeing. It's an honest, down-to-earth, and vividly sensual film."
Kurt Wolff
San Francisco Bay Guardian

The sound track is layered with the cacophony of bustling city streets, the chirps of cicadas and gentle rustles of trees in the countryside, and the visuals, devoid of travelogue cliches, are a collage of pictorial snippets taken from unusual vantage points.... What comes through is such a strong sense of the place you can almost smell it.
Ted Chen
Chicago Reader

"Captures the Vietnam experience with comprehension and compassion, squeezing a vast and incredible country into an intriguing film."
Dale Basye
Portland Tonic Magazine

More Reviews

AWARDS & SCREENINGS:

• Sundance Film Festival

• Atlanta Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize

• New York Film Expo, Best Documentary

• Black Maria Film Fest, Director's Citation

• Museum of Modern Art

• San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

• Whitney Museum of American Art “The American Century” retropective.

• Melbourne Film Fest