Screening of “Vietnam: The next Generation”

Tue 12 Jun 2012, 7.30 – 8.30 pm
Cinematheque

From the organizer:

Friends of Vietnam Heritage is proud to present a special documentary on Vietnam’s young people by Sandy Northrop.

From the film website: Thirty years ago, the only future that awaited young Vietnamese was war. But how have those born in the war’s aftermath capitalized on the dividends of peace? The final film in Sandy Northrop‘s trilogy on Vietnam today, VIETNAM: The Next Generation profiles the lives of seven young Vietnamese, revealing the challenges, choices and dreams that shape their lives, and that of their generation.

Vietnam’s first post-war generation is coming of age, and its members—now in their 20s and 30s—are seizing opportunities unimaginable in their parents’ time. Communism is losing its relevancy, the doors of a free-market economy are opening and memories of the war are being relegated to the distant past. This generation, representing 80 percent of Vietnam’s population, is making up for lost time, exploring all the benefits and costs of their country’s new economic and cultural future.

The same young Vietnamese who once might have stood in line clutching ration coupons for their family’s rice allotment—people like refugee-turned-entrepreneur A Lan Dương and American-raised businessman Henry Nguyễn—now believe that living standards will be better tomorrow than they are today. Many start on a second college degree before they have completed the first. They finish their day jobs as waiters and head off for evening school to study English. Like voice student and newlywed Trần Minh Đăng, they flood into the cities from the countryside—15,000 of them each month—and the money they send back to their villages keeps millions of families off poverty’s doorstep.

Yet prosperity is nowhere close to reaching all young Vietnamese. VIETNAM: The Next Generation also follows construction engineer Lê Việt Tiến, who works to rebuild the Hồ Chí Minh Highway far from his wife and newborn child; Phạm Văn Vinh and his sister Loan, two of the thousands of children living on the streets of Hồ Chí Minh City; and Lê Thị Phượng, a rural farmer who lost a leg in a landmine accident and now struggles as the sole supporter of her entire family.

Language: English, no subtitles

Cost: 100,000 VND (50,000 for Vietnamese students with valid ID card)

Limit: 90 people

To Register: email Thu at [email protected]

Please leave your mobile phone number so we can contact you in case of any last minute changes.