https://maiamerican.com Mai American Tue, 14 Sep 2021 22:53:00 +0000 https://maiamerican.com en https://maiamerican.com/Splash-Page Tue, 14 Sep 2021 19:25:13 +0000 Mai American https://maiamerican.com/Splash-Page A feature length documentary filmed over the course of 10 years. ︎ Retelling the story of the War in Vietnam&nbsp;in a way that shows the historical is personal. ︎ https://maiamerican.com/Info Tue, 14 Sep 2021 19:25:14 +0000 Mai American https://maiamerican.com/Info An American refugee story.&nbsp; A 70-year-old Vietnamese American refugee living in Oregon writes down her life story, indelibly shaped by the War in Vietnam. As she shares what she has written with her queer filmmaker son, they begin parallel journeys confronting the wars of their past and the emotional divide in their present. <img width="1309" height="609" width_o="1309" height_o="609" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/fa14617ae6f71958a84f6e39cee61f4fa2da6776b0b0742a1b8165260b5e06cb/docpitch_finalist.png" data-mid="179575534" border="0" data-scale="87" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/fa14617ae6f71958a84f6e39cee61f4fa2da6776b0b0742a1b8165260b5e06cb/docpitch_finalist.png" /> Winner of the Audience Choice Award at 2023 DocPitch Winner of the Jury Award at 2022 Ready, Set, Pitch! Recipient of the 2022 Sundance Institute Documentary Film Fund Selected for 2023 Rough Cut Retreat, a project of Catapult Film Fund and True/False Film Fest What people are saying about the film: “Kevin’s deeply personal, yet fiercely determined to encapsulate many histories within carefully constructed frames allow us to peer into complexity of relationships as well as the forces that shape our interaction with society.” – Jon-Sesrie Goff, Program Officer, Creativity and Free Expression, Ford Foundation, juror Ready, Set, Pitch! “Mai American unearths intertwined strands of trauma, love, and loss with humor and an undeniable tenderness. The project moves between the micro-environment of the home and the history of the American War in Vietnam with an ease that makes the project extremely engaging.” – Keisha Knight, Director of Funds, IDA, juror Ready, Set, Pitch! “Kevin’s point of view as a director is vulnerable, unapologetically queer, and texturally rich. So many people will be able to relate to the tough journey of reconnection and understanding what makes our parents the way they are.” –Amber Espinosa-Jones, Senior Manager of Artist &amp; Audience Impact, Sundance Institute, juror Ready, Set, Pitch!&nbsp; “Mai American was beautifully presented with humor, tenderness, and a visual treatment that spoke to Kevin’s voice as a filmmaker. It spoke to the ten years Kevin has been carefully considering how to tell an intimate and visceral story.” – Jannette Napoli, Manager of Content and Initiatives, ITVS,&nbsp;juror Ready, Set, Pitch! https://maiamerican.com/A-mother-confronting-her-past-1 Tue, 14 Sep 2021 22:53:00 +0000 Mai American https://maiamerican.com/A-mother-confronting-her-past-1 A mother’s attempt at release— Tot is a retiree in her seventies living in the state of Oregon. Charming and charismatic, much of her time is spent preparing her garden for a summer harvest or tending to her feral cats. Born in Vietnam, Tot came to the United States as a refugee with her three young children nearly 40 years ago. As she now settles into the comfort of her retired life, she begins to reflect on the hardships she endured as a young woman. This includes her experiences living in Saigon during and after the War in Vietnam, and the extreme poverty she experienced after the fall of Saigon in 1975. All of this she has written in a book, and her personal history parallels the broader history of the war. Though she wrote the book merely for herself, she begins to share her writings for the first time with her filmmaker son, Kevin. This forces her to confront the shame and guilt she feels for things she had to do to survive after the war. Together with her son, she begins a journey of healing that takes her all the way back to Vietnam -- a country she hadn’t been to since fleeing in a fishing boat while pregnant with him in 1981. https://maiamerican.com/A-son-finding-his-roots Tue, 14 Sep 2021 19:25:15 +0000 Mai American https://maiamerican.com/A-son-finding-his-roots A son’s journey to reclaim his heritage— Kevin is a filmmaker in his thirties who moves back home to Oregon with his mother after years living in New York City. Feeling stuck living with an aging parent, he begins to film the moments the two share together to find purpose in his current circumstance.&nbsp; Through filming her for several years, Kevin is able to suss out the facts from the mythology in his family history -- aided through conversations with his two older sisters and his mother’s own readings of her book, which she wrote as a way to release the trauma she lived through as a young woman. Through the process, Kevin begins to wonder about his father, whom still lives in Vietnam and whom Kevin has never met. As Kevin spends more time examining his family history, he’s forced to confront his own fraught relationship with his Asian American and queer identities. This includes all the times he othered his own mother and the times she’s othered him. In an effort to better understand his heritage, Kevin takes a trip to Vietnam with his mother to meet the father he never knew and support his mother as she returns to place that caused her so much pain.