How a Film About the Vietnamese New Wave in Southern California Became a Journey of Healing

Whether it’s television, movies, or books, the Vietnam War and its aftermath are often told through the eyes of American soldiers.

But nearly 50 years after the fall of Saigon, some Vietnamese American storytellers are changing the narrative.

“What was I going to do, rehash the Vietnam War? said director Elizabeth Eye. “This was not in my history at all.”

Instead, in her new documentary “New Wave” Ai dives into the 80s music adopted by teenage Vietnamese refugees looking for a place in their new country.

Two Asian-American men in mohawks shake hands.

“New Wave” playing in Laemmle in Glendale until Thursday turns out to be more than just a music documentary. It is also a meditation on family, trauma and healing.

The years-long production of a documentary film and accompanying book entitled “New Wave: Rebellion and Invention in the Vietnamese Diaspora” sent Ai on a personal journey. More than halfway through, she found herself moving from behind the camera to towards the camera.

“It was a VH1 documentary called Behind the Music that turned into something else,” Ai said.

Secret world

Six years ago, Ai was looking for a project to do while on maternity leave (she describes herself as a workaholic) and knew she wanted to make a film about the Vietnamese-American community. She rummaged through old family photographs, some in photo albums, others kept in suitcases.

The photographs obtained by AI showed her aunts and uncles, who as a child fled with their family to the United States before she was born. They came of age in the ’80s, wore heavy eyeliner, and wore their hair a mile high.

A photo of an Asian American girl next to an Asian American bride dressed in white and with swept bangs.

They listened to British new wave bands such as New Order and Depeche Mode. But what they really liked was the synth-pop from Italy and Germany known as Eurodisco, exemplified by bands like Modern Talking, CC Catch and Bad Boy Blues.

“They were deep cuts,” Ai said. “They felt like it was their own little secret world.”

The music inspired the Vietnamese New Wave movement centered in Little Saigon.

The singers put their own spin on European hits by attending Vietnamese-language variety shows held in Little Saigon, the most famous of which was Paris at night.

A Vietnamese American woman with dark eye shadow, lipstick and curled hair poses for the camera.

And the biggest star was Linda Trang Dai, who dressed in a bodysuit and bustier, reminiscent of Material Girl.

“Linda is the Madonna of Vietnam and she has given so much to this community as an artist who has covered all the greatest hits,” Ai said.

Looking in the mirror

Dye’s hilarious cover of CC Catch’s “Jump in My Car” was part of the soundtrack to Eye’s childhood in the San Gabriel Valley, where her de facto parents were her teenage aunts and uncles.

Ai’s father was out of sight. Her mom was never home because she was busy moving around Southern California and opening nail salons—more than a dozen, by Ai’s count.

“She would help other relatives open a salon, and then she would say, ‘OK, take it over,’” Ai said. “She would take it to a certain location where there was a clientele, and she would move on and open another one.”

The absence of her mother made Ai feel abandoned. The distance between them extended into adulthood. They didn’t talk or see each other for years.

A black and white photograph of two Vietnamese American women from the 1980s. The one on the right has very high bangs.

“I try not to think about what it would be like to have a mom because it’s just endless possibilities,” Ai said.

But while Ai suppressed these feelings, she continued to hear about similar experiences from the New Wave members she interviewed for the film. Many gravitated to the music scene because they were looking for a second family.

“They didn’t have parents who were present in their lives,” Ai said. “Either they are separated, or they will be present but working around the clock and trying to figure out how to learn English at night.”

Ai began to see her subjects as her family. There were so many parallels between her mother and Dai, the Vietnamese Madonna. Dai was also the breadwinner for his family. To continue performing, she often left her young son in the care of relatives.

“Suddenly, solving their stories led me to my own,” Ai said.

That’s when Ai, at the gentle prompting of her production team, turned the camera on herself.

Reconciliation

The film shows Ai reaching out to her mother, whom she had not seen for ten years by that point.

It was scary to reveal anything about my life, “let alone air my family’s dirty laundry.”

“My whole life I’ve been told, ‘Don’t talk about it,'” Ai said. “Everything is done to save face.”

An Asian American woman with long hair and a gray jacket poses for the camera.

But it provided freedom to acknowledge and deal with family dysfunction. The film shows Ai and her mother reuniting far from Southern California in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where her mother had moved.

Since the film’s release The premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival. this summer, Ai has heard from not only New Wave members, but others struggling with family trauma.

“People tell me, ‘I broke up with my sister,'” Ai said. “Some guy said to me, ‘Oh, now I know why my mom doesn’t talk to her sister. Aunt left our lives.”

At first, Ai thought she was making a film for her community and her five-year-old daughter. Although this is true, the film is also for her.

“I got to know my mom, and it heals me,” Ai said. “I did something and learned so much about myself that I would never have done if I hadn’t done it.”