New Orleans
Ngôi Làng Mang Tên Versailles – (A Village Called Versailles)
Panelist Uyen Le is interviewed for Saigon TV KJLA
Community Cinema’s National Coordinator Desiree Gutierrez reflects on a screening of A Village Called Versailles held earlier this month before an entirely Vietnamese audience in Southern California.
As one of the National Community Cinema Coordinators, I am use to hosting screenings with diverse crowds, but Sunday night I had the chance to be the outsider at a screening of A Village Called Versailles hosted by Nguoi Viet Daily News in Orange County’s Little Saigon.
The newspaper was the first Vietnamese publication outside of Vietnam and has a rich history. As it was told to me, the newspaper originated out of a series of letters that traveled back and forth between Vietnam and the U.S. as people tried to track down their family members and friends after the war.
Tiffany Le a reporter at Nguoi Viet reached out to me last month wanting to learn more about hosting a screening of A Village Called Versailles. She knew the residents of her community would want to see the film, but as she pointed out, they would not drive to LA or West Hollywood to attend one of our already scheduled events. We made arrangements to host the film at the newspapers auditorium in the heart of Little Saigon.
The newspaper had given us tremendous media coverage. We had a feature with images run a few days before the screening, and an interview with the filmmaker run the day of the event, not to mention a half page ad in the World Cup edition of the paper. Needless to say, the Vietnamese community knew we were having an event and they turned out. Nearly 200 people and four media crews filled the auditorium, and as I had been warned, I the only “Westerner” in the room.
Youth Activists Step Up in New Orleans
Part of the miraculous story of the neighborhood called Versailles in New Orleans rising from the floodwaters to rebuild itself and sustain its citizens after Hurricane Katrina was the unprecedented leadership role that the younger generation took.
Traditionally, the Vietnamese culture in both Vietnam and in this community’s adopted home in New Orleans reserved moral, ethical, and political leadership to the older generations. In the wake of Katrina, and now in the midst of a cataclysmic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the younger generation is proving to be an indispensible link between the English-speaking establishment and the older generations of Vietnamese immigrants who, because of a language and cultural divide, cannot effectively speak for themselves.
In this web-exclusive behind-the-scenes footage, watch how the youth in Versailles stepped into a void and organized their community to rebuild its demolished infrastructure, and then fight off a cynical political ploy to locate a toxic waste dump next to their neighborhood:
Catch A Village Called Versailles at these free upcoming Community Cinema events in Fruita, Colorado; Charleston, South Carolina; Washington, D.C.; and Blaine, Minnesota.
New Orleans Vietnamese Community Impacted by BP Oil Disaster, but You Can’t Keep Versailles Down
The scale of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is nearly impossible to comprehend. Because the spill is an ongoing catastrophe, the scope of the devastation to local communities cannot even begin to be tabulated. A third to half of the commercial fishers in the spill area are Vietnamese. Again, the Vietnamese community in New Orleans is taking a huge proportion of the impact from this disaster.
A Versailles resident in a community where both young and older came together to protest a landfill in their backyard.
While British Petroleum has pledged to compensate fishers who are losing their livelihoods because of the spill, the choices they offer aren’t very appetizing: fishers may file a claim for up to $5,000 for losses related to the spill, or sign up for training to do oil clean-up work. In each case, they sign waivers agreeing to never hold the company liable for future losses or injury. The problem is, all of the paperwork — and all of the training — is in English, and most of the fishers cannot read or speak English, let alone understand legal fine print. BP has not provided any Vietnamese-speaking claims personnel to connect with this demographic.
Father Vien Nguyen, who rallied his community against a toxic landfill in the months after Katrina, is fighting back against BP’s seemingly cavalier approach to this devastated local economy and the Vietnamese people who keep it alive.
Watch A Village Called Versailles featuring Father Vien’s battle against the landfill in 2005, on Independent Lens Tuesday, May 25th on PBS (Check local listings).
And watch Father Vien’s update on what’s happening in Versailles since the oil disaster began:
Community Champion Father Vien
Father Vien Nguyen, a Catholic priest and progressive social activist in the Vietnamese community of New Orleans recently received the Community Champion Award from the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO). Father Vien is prominently featured in the Independent Lens documentary A Village Called Versailles, airing next Tuesday, May 25th on PBS (check local listings). AAPCHO Membership Relations Associate Grace-Sonia Melanio gives us a recap of the awards ceremony.
Father Vien Nguyen accepting the AAPCHO Community Champion Award
In February, the organization I work for, the Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations (AAPCHO), at their fundraising awards gala, showed excerpts from A Village Called Versailles, and presented Father Vien Nguyen with AAPCHO’s Community Champion Award.
For those of you who are not already familiar with AAPCHO’s work, AAPCHO is a national organization representing community health centers dedicated to promoting advocacy, collaboration, and leadership that advances the health status of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders. So when my organization began having conversations about honoring a community champion, we wanted to recognize Father Vien’s work towards re-establishing primary health care services in New Orleans East post-Katrina. As chronicled in A Village Called Versailles, Father Vien’s leadership helped galvanize Vietnamese Americans in Louisiana to rebuild their region, and fight a toxic landfill that threatened the well-being and health of their community.
When ITVS learned that AAPCHO planned to honor Father Vien, they graciously loaned us a copy of the film to show at our awards ceremony. While Father Vien’s accomplishments were read by our emcee, film and television actress Tamlyn Tomita, the audience was visibly moved, as footage from the documentary was simultaneously projected on two large screens. The film punctuated the remarkable battle Father Vien and the Vietnamese American community of Versailles had fought and won to reclaim and protect their home.
Watch the trailer for A Village Called Versailes >>
Our Own “Super Tuesday” for A Village Called Versailles: 6 Screenings Today!
A village called Versailles rises from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina
Community Cinema is having our own “Super Tuesday” today with six screenings of our May documentary selection, A Village Called Versailles. The film has been a festival-circuit hit all year. The link above will connect you to all of our upcoming free screenings as well as our free downloadable discussion guide. The guide will give you background information, a statement from the film’s director S. Leo Chiang, and resources you can use to support Versailles and your own community.
Please join us!
San Francisco, California at 5:45 PM
San Francisco Main Public Library, Koret Auditorium
100 Larkin St. 94102
Queens, New York at 6:00 PM
Al Oerter Recreation Center
131-40 Fowler Ave
Manhattan, NYC at 7:30 PM
East 54th Street Recreation Center
348 East 54th St. 10033
Rochester, New York at 7:00 PM
WXXI
280 State St. 14614
Houston, Texas at 7:00 PM
Rice Cinema hosted by HoustonPBS
6100 Main St. 77030
Event Web site »
Montrose, Colorado at 7:30 PM
Hosted by Rocky Mountain PBS
Montrose Regional Library
320 South 2nd St. 81401
Here’s a clip from the film.
Seattle’s Vietnamese Community Rallies Around A Village Called Versailles
Our panelists (l. to r.) Nanette Fok, Thao Nguyen, Trang Tu, and Trong Pham
Despite another unusually gorgeous sunny day in Seattle, we had 130 people attend our recent free Community Cinema Seattle premiere event for A Village Called Versailles. Eight people showed up just for the panel discussion. The audience loved the film finding it humorous, touching, and inspiring. There were big reactions to the story and the people in the film. The audience laughed, gasped, and were silently moved by the inspirational residents of East New Orleans’ Versailles.
We were lucky to have Trang Tu on our panel. Trang, an urban planner, is featured in the film. She spoke eloquently about Versailles and then about plans for development in Seattle and how the community can support or protest the new development in Little Saigon. Trang was integral in the development of the master plan for the rebuilding of Versailles.
Repeating that message was Thao T. Nguyen of the Vietnamese Friendship Association and Neighborhood House. Thao is a young board member who gave the audience some great tips for local activism and community support.
The Vietnamese feast provided by the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce
Our moderator, Nanette Fok, is a local activist and community organizer who drew fascinating opinions and stories from our panel. She asked how the lessons learned in A Village Called Versailles could be applied to Seattle. The audience decided that the film was an excellent catalyst topics like disaster preparedness on the community/neighborhood level.
Also on the panel was Trong Pham, President of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, who spoke about the robust Vietnamese business community in Seattle. He and the Chamber sponsored a Vietnamese feast in the lobby after the event. At least 50-60 people stayed after the panel discussion and mingled and networked in the lobby.
Visit A Village Called Versailles Where Even Hurricane Katrina Couldn’t Keep New Orleans’ Vietnamese Community Down
A village called Versailles rises from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina
ITVS Community and National Alliance of Vietnamese American Service Agencies (NAVASA) are proud to support A Village Called Versailles with Community Cinema screening events and materials in support of its national broadcast on Independent Lens later this month.
The Vietnamese Americans were a quiet community, barely noticed outside of East New Orleans. Self-sufficient and industrious, they tended lush garden plots, ran a weekly farmer’s market, built homes, bought cars, and generally achieved the American dream.
The center of their community was — and still is — Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church, and its pastor and leader, Father Vien, who joined the congregation in 2003.
When Hurricane Katrina destroyed all that they had built, it was an emotionally wrenching time. When the flood waters covered their community and they were forced to evacuate, those who had once fled their country in boats now found themselves in boats again, looking for refuge.
Although they were dispersed to several cities in Texas and to Ft. Chaffee, Arkansas (where many had originally come as refugees from Vietnam), the tight-knit network created by the church helped Father Vien to maintain communication with his flock. Six weeks after Hurricane Katrina, some residents of Versailles came back and started rebuilding.
Watch a preview of the film here.
A Versailles gardener takes a moment away from her work
The film’s director, S. Leo Chiang, says of the experience, “It took two and a half years to capture this story. I am grateful that members of the Versailles community trusted me to tell their story. Before I made this film, the word “community” would come up in conversations from time to time, but making this film has taught me what “community” really means — a group of people, family or not, who always have each other’s back. I want the audience to walk away from this film moved by this story as much as I have been and continue to be. I also want them to feel empowered, especially viewers who are a part of any underserved and/or underrepresented group. I want them to believe that, united with their friends and family, they, too, can make a difference.”
The film doesn’t just scratch the surface of the complex and frustrating reactions to hurricane Katrina it opens a new window on the story. Rebuilding a community (literally from the ground up) can only happen if all the residents young and old join together. This is the story of rebuilding… everything. Find your free event!
Community Cinema New Orleans Presents Special Challenges and Rewards
Allison Inman, our Nashville-based National Community Cinema Coordinator recently spoke to Jerald White, Director of the Charitable Film Network, our Community Cinema Producing Partner in New Orleans. Since 2006, Community Cinema – led by courageous volunteers – has presented free events in a variety of unique community venues.
Community Cinema New Orleans Presented BETWEEN THE FOLDS This Past Saturday
Allison writes, Of all the cities that host Community Cinema screenings, I’m most grateful for the New Orleans program. That post-Katrina transition — a mixture of financial setbacks and relentless creative spirit — makes it fertile ground for discussions around the social issues in the films.
AI: What are the challenges and triumphs of organizing events in New Orleans these days?
JW: Juggling the demands of our ongoing recovery effort, with the hardships brought on by the current recession can make it difficult to organize Community Cinema events. People sometimes get stuck in survival mode, and they don’t always feel like they can afford to take a break or connect with others in the community.
It’s always a challenge to secure program venues and funding, but we’ve moved the program forward despite these challenges. We’ve been very fortunate this year to attract new partners like the New Orleans Office of Film & Video, the Louisiana Office of Film & Television, Antenna Gallery, and the Dillard University Theater Department.
Antenna Gallery New Orleans, Louisiana
At the end of the day it seems that “organizing” in New Orleans is really about improvisation – learning to take advantage of the moment at hand, and understanding the importance of cultivating long-term community relationships.
AI: Which films resonate most with your audience? What kind of subject matter — social justice films like Tulia, Texas, or more light-hearted art films like Helvetica and Copyright Criminals?
JW: Films about the environment and hardcore social justice issues tend to draw larger crowds here. There is also a strong audience for films like HELVETICA and BETWEEN THE FOLDS. However, films with New Orleans themes like A VILLAGE CALLED VERSAILLES traditionally resonate the most with our audience.
AI: You like to move the events around to various venues around town. Why do you think that’s important?
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