“On Healing Land, Birds Perch” + “Roots That Reach Toward the Sky” + “We Were the Scenery”

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