Directed by DOAN HOANG
The last family airlifted out of Saigon on the last day of the Vietnam War attempts to resolve its divided past. A father reunites with the brother he fought against decades after the conflict that split them. A mother in impossible circumstances is forced to chose between her daughter and her husband. Meanwhile, two first-generation Vietnamese-American sisters try to reconcile a difficult past that altered the course of their lives. While one was airlifted out of Saigon at the end of the war, the other was tragically left behind and suffered through imprisonment and kidnapping.
In 2000, as a young Vietnamese-American woman, Doan Hoang began filming interviews with her family in America, and kept the camera rolling as they journeyed back to Vietnam. Doan had been on that last civilian helicopter out of Saigon at the age of 3. In seeking to uncover the mysterious circumstances of her family?s schism, Doan has compiled a documentary account that reveals the humanity of those who were soldiers, wives, children, prisoners, revolutionaries, and refugees. The war?s deep and lasting ramifications divided this family and many others between two worlds: the cold, “free,” and affluent United States, and the colorful, ?Communist?, and poverty-stricken Vietnam. Their lives demonstrate the consequences of split-second choices, and how a war lives on inside people long after the fighting stops. Yet, we also see indomitable will and spirit of humans and their ability to face adversity, recover and change.
