The Bay Area's home for the world's finest films and filmmakers.
Mid-Length: On Healing Land, Birds Perch
Mid-Length: On Healing Land, Birds Perch
Mid-Length: On Healing Land, Birds Perch
Presented with Roots That Reach Toward the Sky + We Were the Scenery
Presented with Roots That Reach Toward the Sky + We Were the Scenery
Presented with Roots That Reach Toward the Sky + We Were the Scenery
Fri, Apr 25 at 6:15 PM at Marina Theatre
Fri, Apr 25 at 6:15 PM at Marina Theatre
Fri, Apr 25 at 6:15 PM at Marina Theatre
Mid-Length Film
Short Film
Short Film
Directors of On Healing Land, Birds Perch, Roots that Reach Toward the Sky, and We Were the Scenery are expected to attend for a post-screening Q&A.
On Healing Land, Birds Perch
AP photographer Eddie Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for his photo “Saigon Execution” that caught the killing of Viet Cong captain Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese general Nguyễn Ngọc Loan during the opening days of the Tet Offensive. Five decades later, Naja Pham Lockwood relates the extraordinary story of the opposing combatants' complex legacies. The film gathers together for the first time the children of General Loan and Captain Lém, as well as the son of a family Lém executed. Now living in the United States, these descendants exchange polarizing views on the iconic photograph and their conflicted feelings toward their fathers and their actions. While perspectives may push these individuals apart, the lasting shadow cast by the Vietnam War ultimately entangles them. Lockwood explores in candid detail the ramifications of this generational trauma for Vietnamese diaspora, but also compassionately distills the resilience of each individual and demonstrates the power of healing they find through the Vietnamese American community. —Jordan Klein
Naja Pham Lockwood (USA, Vietnam 2025, 33 min)
California Premiere
Roots That Reach Toward the Sky
North American Premiere
Jess X. Snow (USA 2024, 15 min)
After her mother's traditional Chinese medicine shop is vandalized, Kai draws on the resilience of her local community and the healing remedies of her ancestors to contend with her deepest anxieties.
We Were the Scenery
California Premiere
Christopher Radcliff (USA, Vietnam, Philippines 2025, 15 min)
In this Sundance award winner, producer Cathy Linh Che’s parents Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che recall fleeing to the Philippines after the Vietnam War, where they inadvertently became extras on Apocalypse Now.
Total Runtime 63 min
Naja Pham Lockwood was born in Vietnam, immigrating to the United States after the fall of Saigon. A graduate of Boston University with an MBA from Harvard Business School, she is a co-founder of Gamechangers 2.0, a film fund, and is the founder of RYSE Media Ventures. She served as Arts Commissioner for the City of San Francisco (AAMSF), the first Vietnamese American to do so. She executive produced Gook (2017), Primetime Emmy winner 76 Days (2020), and Try Harder! (2021).
Jess X. Snow is a filmmaker, multi-disciplinary artist and author born in Canada, of JiangXi Chinese heritage. They were named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 2023 “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”
Christopher Radcliff is an award-winning mixed Chinese American filmmaker based in New York City. He received his MFA from Columbia University, and currently teaches in the Film/Video Department at Pratt Institute.
