Chúc m?ng nam m?i, everyone! Lots of things are happening in the Vietnamese community all the time, so I decided to start summarizing 'em up in newsletter-like posts that from now on I decided to call Vietnamese Buzz! Enjoy.
Tet Festival 2006
Tet Festival 2006 just took place in Little Saigon. This year, UVSA did not videotape the event, so please don't wait for the videos to be posted as every year, because they simply won't. :) The OC register features a short article, and of course the Tet issue of Non Song is now available online as well.
Upcoming Vietnamese conferences
VASCON2, March 24th - March 26th, Austin, TX
VIA-1, March 17th-March 19th, Minneapolis, MN
uNAVSA, July 13-July 16th, San Jose, CA
VIFF, Spring 2007, Southern California (I assume)
DH5, some time in 2007, somewhere in South East Asia
(new article on DH4 was published this week on Nguoi Viet)
Honoring cyber dissident Do Nam Hai with courage award
Cyber dissident Do Nam Hai in Vietnam was fined 1,300 US dollars for writing an unauthorized dissident manuscript. There's a project from the Vietnamese Diaspora to collect from 1,500 people to honor his courage with a $1,500 cash prize instead. Lots of emails circling around on this one on the many Vietnamese mailing lists, but see this website for more info.
Vietnamese Movies
Ham Tran's Journey from the Fall was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival with a long standing ovation (which typically doesn't happen at Sundance). Unfortunately, the distributors and press weren't at that screening. For those who still haven't seen it yet, it'll play at the end of March at the Asian Film Festival here in San Francisco. A very promising Vietnamese movie named Dust of Life is coming out soon. Le Van-Kiet's first feature length movie is a coming-of-age story of a displaced Vietnamese juvenile growing up in Orange County after his parents died during the boat people exodus. The first screenings will be held in Orange County end of this month. Looks very promising! Of course, there is still Duc Nguyen's boat people documentary Bolinao 52 (which wrapped up filming in the Philippines last year, but is currently on re-edit to include Hoi Trinh's fabulous campaign for the 2000 displaced Vietnamese) and Mike Nguyen's cute animation My Little World to look forward to as well. In the meantime, Victor Vu's dysfunctional-Vietnamese-family movie First Morning came out on DVD this week and Minh Nguyen's (no, not me) very aesthetic coming-of-age story Buffalo Boy can now be pre-ordered, but won't come out until March 21st.
VietACT
In preparation for the new year, anti human trafficking non-profit VietACT is in the process of stopping at various cities in a nationwide tour to promote and educate the Vietnamese community on human trafficking issues. This Relay for Trafficking campaign will start at VIA-1 in mid-March. More info to be posted soon.