Thursday, March 28, 2024

‘The Vietnam War’ documentary: perspectives from all sides

Mary Tran/Nguoi Viet English

IRVINE, California (NV) – The young Vietnamese Americans came to watch their shared history. The history their grandparents, and maybe their parents, lived. The history of horror that hasn’t been talked about that much at home.

Together, they watched the preview of a new documentary, “The Vietnam War,” from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, noted creators of historical films. Together, they left the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center at UC Irvine awestruck and curious.

“In the Vietnamese community, everything is internalization,” said Thúy Mai, 21, a student at UC Irvine. “Everything is kept inside. Silence. This would be a really good catalyst to start a conversation among generations to lessen the gap.”

Directed by Burns and Novick, “The Vietnam War” is a 10-part, 18-hour film series” that tells stories and highlights voices of ordinary people affected by the Vietnam War from 1958 until now. Those who tell their stories come from three sides: the South Vietnamese, the North Vietnamese and the Americans.

Burns and his crew interviewed nearly 100 witnesses to history and included the words of 80 of them from all ranks: civilians from the North and South; South Vietnamese military, the North Vietnamese Army, the forces of the Viet Cong, and Americans from the marines and army; journalists; diplomats and Pentagon officials; Gold Star mothers; draft protestors; anti-war demonstrators; and more.

In other words, the whole spectrum of opinions.

“The passage of time has not healed a lot, but it permitted us the perspectives, to be able to embrace a lot of different points of views, and to not have an agenda,” Burns said.

The preview showed a few clips cut from the long documentary, but through it, members of the audience — especially the young Vietnamese Americans — said it could help them to start a serious conversation about the Vietnam War with their families.

From left, Ngọc Phạm, Thuy Mai, Billy Lê, and Orange County clerk-recorder Hugh Nguyễn attended the preview of ‘The Vietnam War’ documentary. (Photo: Titi Mary Tran)

 

“This film serves as a catalyst for me to talk to my parents about what they have been through during the war,” said Yvonne Tran, 28, a member of the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association. “I can ask them, ‘Oh did you see the film about [the] Vietnam War or so and so, et cetera, and start the conversation.’ They usually don’t talk about the war very much.”

Ngọc Phạm, 23, a student at UCI, agreed with Tran.

“This documentary is really good for younger generation, especially for me and her, just to realize how the Vietnam War was because we don’t hear from our parents,” Pham said of herself and fellow student Thuý Mai, standing with her. “We know how Vietnam is now, but we don’t really know how it was back then and how it got to how it is today.”

Billy Lê, 30, a staff member at the Orange County clerk-recorder office, and Kimberly Phạm, 32, a magazine editor, said it’s tough to draw conclusions about the documentary without seeing each installment.

“It’s really hard for me to say [about this documentary] because it’s broken down to one segment of 10 episodes,” Lê said. “I hope to learn from it. I love war documentaries because [they tell] me the reason why I came to the United States. But my dad would warn me that, ‘You know, if you read a book, make sure you see which side the stories are written on, and you can also ask me.’ So far, it’s all about battles, about the war. It doesn’t seem there is much about the refugees. So, to be honest, I don’t know what to expect.”

Phạm has a broader viewpoint.

“This documentary is going to present a different perspective,” she said. “For them to present the content that has already been seen in a completely different way and also retell the Vietnam War from fresh perspectives all in one documentary series is really ambitious. There hasn’t been any documentary that tells the story from three different perspectives – from the North, South and American perspective.”

Co-producers Sarah Botstein Ken Burns, and Lynn Novick visit Nguoi Viet daily news. (Photo: Linh Nguyen)

It took 10 years to finish the documentary, which was written by Geoffrey C. Ward and co-produced by Burns, Novick and Sarah Botstein. The film includes content from libraries all over the world that has been digitized into images rarely seen before, along with photographs taken by well-known journalists in the 20th century.

The documentary also includes historical footages, home videos and sounds that are part of the archives of presidents John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Music from more than 100 musicians of the era is heard.

The mission of the documentary isn’t to draw a conclusion but rather to present the facts, to show “what the suffering was like and how hard it was,” Novick said.

Burns drew at least one conclusion, though.

“What is clear now in retrospect is that all three governments failed,” he said. “They didn’t tell the truth to the people who were doing the fighting and dying for them. All three.”

“The Vietnam War” will premiere nationwide on Sept 17 on PBS stations. The first five episodes will run nightly until Sept. 21, with the next five episodes the following Sunday through Thursday. Each episode begins at 8 p.m. EDT.

The installments also will be live streamed via PBS.org and a number of other platforms, with Vietnamese and Spanish subtitles available.

Beginning Oct. 3, the series will air each Tuesday until Nov. 28 at 9 p.m. EDT.

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