Fri, Apr 25, 2025 6:15 PM PT

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

TRT: 63 min

AP photographer Eddie Adams won the Pulitzer Prize for his photo “Saigon Execution” that caught the killing of Viet Cong…
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On Healing Land, Birds Perch
Directed by Naja Pham Lockwood USA, Vietnam | Mid-Length Film | 33
Centered around the iconic Vietnam War photo, Saigon Execution, this documentary tells the story of the children of both men and the reconciliation with their complex legacies and American migration.

On Healing Land, Birds Perch

Roots That Reach Toward the Sky
Directed by Jess X. Snow USA | Short Film | 15
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.

Roots That Reach Toward the Sky

We Were the Scenery
Directed by Christopher Radcliff USA, Vietnam, Philippines | Short Film | 15
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.

We Were the Scenery

Program Description

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