Many thoughts wonder through my mind as I try to summarize the last three weeks at the Fourth International Vietnamese Youth Conference in Sydney, Australia.
Journey from the Fall
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| Director Ham Tran talks about Journey from the Fall |
As
noted before many times, I am a huge fan and supporter of the movie
Journey from the Fall that tells the story and journey of a family to the United States after the
Fall of Saigon. Director
Ham Tram traveled to Sydney to present clips of the movie and talk about the hurdles he is currently facing. The movie still has not found a distributor yet, but is part of the official selection of the
Sundance Film Festival 2006 that will take place in two weeks in Park City, Utah. There have been several distributors interested in buying this movie, but they want to see the audience’s reaction at
Sundance first. If everything goes well there, the movie might be finally out in the theaters nationwide as early as April 2006 (hopefully this will answer the question many of you guys have been asking me all the time). I was lucky enough to see an earlier version of this heart-wrenchingly sad and extremely moving film at a
screening in San Jose earlier this year, and am I delighted that
Ham Tram has invited me to go to Sundance and see the final version of this amazing movie that has been so long overdue. Being an enthusiast for independent movies, I can’t be more excited to go to Utah in two weeks for this film festival! Don't worry, if you can't get into Sundance this year, you can see the movie again as it will be showing at the International Asian Film Festival in San Francisco in March.
Live Interview with Cyber-dissident Do Nam Hai
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Conference attendees listen to cyberdissident
Do Nam Hai from Vietnam |
Do Nam Hai is a Vietnamese exchange student who studied in Australia for a long while and then returned to Vietnam, where he began publishing dissident papers on the internet criticizing the Vietnamese government and asking for political change, naturally with the constant danger of being harassed and “troubled” by the current regime in Vietnam. I had the opportunity to meet
Do Nam Hai in Vietnam during one of my many trips there, and during the conference, the
International Vietnamese Youth Network set up a live audio-only conference call with
Do Nam Hai in Vietnam to create long phone interview between Vietnamese youths overseas with a young dissident in Vietnam. As a dissident in Vietnam, one always endangers oneself by writing dissident articles, so speaking on the phone live with hundreds of Vietnamese youths overseas is an intimidating task, and I was very moved by my brother’s courage and determinism. I challenged my fellow Vietnamese diasporas at the conference (and was probably preaching the choir by doing so), by asking if these dissidents in Vietnam risk their lives and the lives of their immediate family members by voicing their opinion, and we Vietnamese diasporas living in free country choose not to speak up, what kind of role models would we be and what kind of message would we send to them? As I explain the need for overseas demonstrations and political engagement to my fellow Vietnamese who often challenge my involvement within the Vietnamese community, I ask of them to see the bigger picture. I don’t believe in “Da Dao Cong Sang Viet Nam” slogans. I hate them with the pest and was utterly disappointed seeing this sentence being overused at the opening ceremony of
DH4 by local non-Vietnamese politicians, but I believe that it is our work overseas that gives the people in Vietnam the hope, determination and fuel to do the work that actually will lead to changes in Vietnam.
In Memoriam of Nguyen Ngoc Phu
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| Conference attendees learn about DH3 enthusiast Phu Heo |
My
friend Nguyen Ngoc Phu—aka
Phu Heo—was supposed to be on this trip, and we missed him greatly. He was known as the
DH3 enthusiast and camp leader and in the two years of his community involvement he has done more than many of us in our lifetime. After DH3, we became very close friends. He passed away in June of this year due to heart complications at the age of 21. We ran the
Phu Heo slideshow on a table in the lobby and gave
DH4 attendees the opportunity to learn about his life and to sign a guestbook that I am taking with me to his grave when I visit him for the
Tet Festival later this month. I missed him greatly at the conference.
Sydney Opera House
During our Australia trip, we’ve traveled to Melbourne as well as Brisbane, got to see Koala bears, Kangaroos, swam at Sunshine coast and Gold Coast, climbed over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, toured Darling Harbor, ate Kangaroo meat, visited Manly Beach and drank wine at Bondi Beach, but the highlight of my entire trip was the end, when a close friend of mine and I went to see Madame Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House. It was the most amazing experience seeing one of the most famous operas at one of the most famous Opera venues in the world. Sung in complete Italian, but with English subtitles, we got to follow the love-tragedy of Madame Butterfly at the Sydney Opera House, followed by stroll along the Sydney Harbor with the Harbor Bridge in the background and a nice dinner at the waterfront. Ah… what a beautiful way to end our trip to Australia.
In conclusion
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| I took this picture when walking over Sydney Harbor Bridge |
The
Fourth International Vietnamese Youth Conference in Sydney has been a great experience, but somehow I find the
Third International Vietnamese Youth Conference in San Diego more inspiring. Naturally, I am biased being a
DH3 core organizing member, while this year I’ve only been a
DH4 attendee.
DH3 had more spirit and more enthusiasm, but
DH4 was somehow more fun with all the parties that I got to attend at night (and getting drunk). The Aussies have been extremely hospitable and I am grateful for everyone’s great and amazing work. I’ve opted not to work behind-the-scenes much to finally experience an event from the attendee’s point of view. For this conference, I created only
three slideshows:
Opening Ceremony,
Conference Intro and
Closing Ceremony (even though I must add that the Closing Ceremony slideshow was put together last-minute and I am not particularly proud of it given that it's just a carbon-copy of the Opening Ceremony).
A new year, new hope
My two and a half weeks in Australia is coming to an end and with it the worst year of my entire life. I have been told that I inspire other people through my optimism and be-happy enthusiasm for community work, but I am afraid that this year the world has turned upside down for me. An unfortunate series of personal depressions not related to the Vietnamese community have taken a big toll on me, forcing me to take a step back and reorient myself before I start the next year. I intend to retreat myself from Vietnamese community for a while and disappear from the scene for a bit to reserve some idle and downtime for myself, before I will head on and dedicate myself to VietACT and to what I envision will be my next big task: to innovate Mang Luoi Tuoi Tre Viet Nam Len Duong.
International Vietnamese Youth Network Renaissance
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| Closing Ceremony at the Fourth International Vietnamese Youth Conference |
The
International Vietnamese Youth Network has been in existence since DH1, and many people believe that this organization has not reached the mainstream youth enough through a lack of promotion, community education and collaboration with other notable organizations such as
Amnesty International or branches of the US government. Well, many of us-even within the organization-can’t agree with you more, and
DH4 has given us the fuel to start working for a real, big change. During
DH4, I sat down with some attendees and we decided that it’s time to give
MLTTVNLD its much-needed facelift and reorganize and innovate ourselves.
If we truly believe that the future of Vietnam lies in the hands of the current Vietnamese youth in and outside of Vietnam, we better need to speak their language, and reach out and work with the youths more than we have. With that said, boys and girls, I ask of you to help me in this journey. We are ready to change and listen to your opinion, and we need your help in reshaping this organization that has so much potential, but has failed to live up to its mission statement. It’s going to be a long and daunting task, but if uNAVSA was born out of DH3 (see our article in the the January issue of Nha Magazine) and is now heading a nationwide campaign for VietACT within two years of its existence, then there is no reason for the International Vietnamese Youth Network to take this involvement to the international scale and change the world again. Ladies and gens, I want to see a MLTTVNLD renaissance. Let us change the world we live in, by changing ourselves first. Who is with me?
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead