Vietnamese Professionals Society North American Conference 2004

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Duc Nguyen

Full Paper - Workshop Speech Video

Born during the war in Vietnam, Duc Nguyen experienced firsthand the devastation of an arm conflict. He and his family remained in Vietnam for five years after the last U.S. helicopter left Saigon in 1975. After several harrowing attempts to escape, the Nguyen family and over other 100 refugees set out in a thirty-foot wooden boat in April 1980. They were rescued by the USS Long Beach after 4 days in South China Sea. Duc and his family eventually resettled in Virginia and then Texas. He now lives in Los Angeles. Duc Nguyen holds a bachelor degree in Mass Communications from the University of California at Berkeley. He has more than ten years of experience in the entertainment and television industries.

From 1997 to 2000, Duc worked as an interactive television program producer for GTE mainstreet. His work enabled the Internet to be delivered through cable television. In 2001, he produced Mediated Reality, a documentary about Cuba in the age of Elian Gonzalez. The documentary examines the mainstream television's portrayal of the Elian case and proposes diverse views from ordinary Cubans and Americans that TV viewers didn't get to see; Cuba from within.

Duc, an avid traveler, has done video documenting work in Vietnam, Cuba, up on the Andes and down in the Amazon, South America. In 2002, he spent a month in Ecuador documenting a group of archaeologists searching for a Pre-Inca civilization. In 2003, Nguyen served as an assistant editor for The New Americans and My Journey Home, multi-part series on family and identities. These programs follow different people throughout the world as they search for a place called home. The show airs nationally on PBS March & April 2004.

Currently, Duc is producing Bolinao 52, a documentary about Vietnamese Boat People. More information online at: www.rhimp.com/bolinao.

For more of Duc's work, please see www.rhimp.com.

Abstract

While the media industry going through new changes and challenges due to the advent of new technology, arise a new recognition for independent media. Independent media makers begin to emerge as power players as they deliver more diverse views and meaningful topics. Meanwhile, the public response to these voices. Outside of the homogeny image created by the mainstream media, we begin to learn about our world through independent media. It informs us about who we are and the world we live in.

Through this revolution, documentaries command a leading role in shaping world perspectives. They allow us the to see issues in need of attention. They bring new views from obscure corners of the world that we normally don�t see. The bond between documentary and the historical world is profound. Documentaries add a new dimension to popular memory and social history.

Within the multiethnic social development, group identity becomes a necessary agent for recognition and empowerment. The politics of identity then fall into the functionality of the image-maker. The voice of the documentary gives memorable form of cultures and history that remained ignored or suppressed beneath the dominant values and beliefs of society. Our sense of self and identity rely on the impact of these media.

Socially conscious filmmakers' role is to deliver images that touch on collective memories. The Vietnamese American experience should not only reflect issues that uniquely Vietnamese but also represent our voices in an American context. The role of a Vietnamese American documentary filmmaker is to communicate our experiences, speak our stories and advocates our concerns that connects to the larger world.

On a local perspective, projecting our experience is a civic duty to strengthen the community. Social history is central to community building. It provides the cultural context that defines who we are, where we come from and our struggle in the beginning. These documents also help guide future generations in understanding the historical and political contexts of the community.

N e w s

11.02.04: Nguoi Viet 2: Professionals connecting to other professionals: heard and 'scene'

11.01.04: Comments: Nguyen Thanh-Nghia

11.01.04: Comments: Hoang Minh-Long

10/30/04: Of responsibilities and privileges

10/30/04: Professionals connecting to other professionals: heard and 'scene'

10/27/04: Radio TNT Post-Conference Interview on October 25th

10/24/04: First set of Multimedia

10/22/04: Live Internet Broadcasting

10/09/04: Radio TNT Interview October 6th

10/03/04: Registration problems

09/28/04: Early Registration Ends October 20th

09/20/04: Radio VNCR Interview September 11th

09/15/04: Registration and Confirmed Speakers Online

09/14/04: Flyer

09/10/04: Radio TNT Interview September 3rd

08/13/04: Fundraising Dinner With Q13 Fox News Anchorwoman Lily Jang

07/19/04: VPS Conference 2004 Press Release

04/01/04: VPS Conference Logo Competition

03/01/04: VPS Southern California will be hosting the upcoming VPS North American Conference 2004