A new documentary about the culture and identity of Vietnamese Americans growing up in the eighties and their connection to the new wave music scene premiered to much fanfare in Chicago.
Directed by Elizabeth Ai, “New Wave” won the Albert Maysles Special Jury Award for Best New Documentary Director at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.
As Ai told NBC Chicago, her documentary is much more than just a journey to the past.
“It’s very very special to be in Chicago,” Ai said.
A special screening for the New Wave documentary was held at the Siskel Film Center in downtown Chicago as part of the 28th annual Asian American Showcase.
“I’ve been working on this for six years and it literally was inspired by my baby. I was pregnant in 2018, and it was like the most terrifying thing that ever happened because I didn’t have anywhere to turn,” Ai said.
Ai embarks on a journey in the documentary reflecting on her own history to tell the story of Vietnamese Americans in Orange County, California during that period, leading her to something much deeper.
“It is about healing, identity, generational trauma, and the decades of unraveling the trauma of displacement,” Ai said. “I think when I started on this journey I thought, oh it’s only the first generation that has trauma. I was totally fed a lie.”
The documentary examines the buried trauma from the Vietnam War as Vietnamese American teens turn to new wave music and the cultural movement for a sense of belonging.
“There’s a reason why they needed new wave music, and it was a safe space for these first-generation refugee teens who were not accepted at home,” Ai said. “They couldn’t be white American enough at school, they couldn’t be Vietnamese enough at home, so they found new wave music and they built a community identity through that.”
Prominent New Wave Vietnamese singers, like Lynda Trang Dai was also featured in the film attracting fans from that era.
“I saw Lynda Trang Dai in there and I said, ‘oh my gosh, this is so cool, and the big hair’,” said Judy Huong Slater, who attended the screening. “We all lived that and so it was kind of nostalgic to see how others viewed the era and I’m also an immigrant from 1975 as well.”
Throughout the documentary, Ai is left with the burning desire to confront her past and childhood marked by her mother’s abandonment.
She hopes her journey to heal, and new beginnings will inspire others to learn about their family’s history no matter where they’re from. She said she’s been overwhelmed by the positive response of the release.
“I think the most important thing is our community rallying around it, embracing it and saying they feel seen they feel heard,” Ai said. “We need to stand up and be loud and be proud of who we are and that means starting with just sharing our stories with one another in the ways that we can.”
The director said she’s already working on her next project, her first fiction narrative, and that there are talks to turn her documentary into a series.
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