Oh, Saigon

Oh, Saigon
Directed by	Doan Hoang
Produced by	Doan Hoang Executive Producers: John Battsek Julie Goldman Frank Campbell Co-executive producers: Krysanne Katsoolis Andrew Ruhemann Caroline Stevens Consulting Producer: Daniel F. Giddings Associate Producers Su Kim Jessica Ludgrove Ham Tran
Written by	Doan Hoang Bret Sigler
Starring	Nam Hoang Anne Hoang Van Tran Doan Hoang Hoàng Duc Hoang Dzung Nhat Hoang Dylan Le
Music by	Juan P. Buccella Malcolm Cross
Cinematography	Ham Tran Lara Frankena Tim Furnish Doan Hoang
Editing by	Bret Sigler
Release date(s)	2007
Running time	57 mins
Country	US, UK, Vietnam
Language	English, Vietnamese

Oh, Saigon is a 2007 autobiographical documentary by Vietnamese American director Doan Hoang about her family's separation during the fall of Saigon and her attempt to reunite them. Oh, Saigon was executive produced by Academy Award and Emmy winner, John Battsek. Oh, Saigon won film grants from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund, ITVS, the Center for Asian American Media, and the Fund for Reconciliation and Development.

Awards

• Recipient - Sundance Institute Documentary Fund Award
• Recipient - ITVS (Independent Television Service) Open Call Award
• Recipient - Center For Asian American Media's (CAAM) Media Fund Award
• Grand Jury Prize – Best Documentary – Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, May 2008
• Best Documentary Award - 42nd Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival, May 2008
• Best Brooklyn Film - 42nd Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival, May 2008
• Best of the Fest – Austin Film Festival, February 2008
• Best Documentary Nominee - San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, March 2007
• Grand Jury Prize Nominee – Vietnamese International Film Festival, April 2009

Releases & showing dates

• 2008 Winner of Grand Jury Prize at its Los Angeles premiere May 3, 2008 at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
• 2008 Best Feature Documentary & Best Brooklyn Film at the 42nd Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival, and had its Brooklyn premiere at the Brooklyn Museum, Friday, May 9.
• Nominated for 2009 Grand Jury Prize at Vietnamese International Film Festival, May 2009.
• New York City premiere at the MoMA - Museum of Modern Art's Documentary Exhibition Fortnight on February 16, 2008 to a sold-out, standing room audience.
• World premiere at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in March 2007, nominated for Best Feature Documentary.
• UK Premiere at London's Trocadero Centerat Leicester Square at Raindance Film Festival, October 2007.
• Canadian Premiere in November 2008 at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.
• Spanish Premiere in April/May 2007 in Barcelona, Spain's Plaça Catalunya at the [Barcelona Asian Film Festival]
• Vietnamese Premiere at the Hanoi Cinemateque, Hanoi, Vietnam in January 2009
• German Premiere at the Berlin Asian Hot Shots Film Festival in January 2009.
• Polish Premiere at Warsaw's cinema Muranow & then cinema Kinoteka at the Vietnam Film Festival in October 2008.
• Norwegian Premiere at the Mela Festival, November 2008
• San Diego Asian Film Festival in October 2008.
• Austin Film Festival in Austin, Texas in October 2007
• Returned as an Austin Festival favorite to kick off the Austin Film Festival Documentary Series on Feb. 6, 2008.

Television

• World Television Broadcast Premiere April 15, 2008 on PBS.
• Airs on PBS US nationwide. Check www.ohsaigon.com/broadcasts.html or with your PBS station.
• [Yes TV] - Israel, 2009
• [Sveriges Utbildningsradio AB] (Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company) - Israel, 2009

Radio Broadcasts about Oh, Saigon

• Director Doan Hoang on National Public Radio's [New America Now]: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=b065956c105587ceb07bb10d974c239cc239c
• On "Subversity," the KUCI 88.9 FM Irvine Radio Show
• With historian & activist, Dan Tsang: mp3: http://kuci.org/~dtsang/subversity/Sv090406.mp3

Festivals

• San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival – March 2007
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Documentary Exhibition, New York, NY – Feb. 2008
• Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival – May 2008
• Barcelona Asian Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain – May 2007
• Austin Film Festival, Austin, TX – October 2007
• Raindance Film Festival, London, United Kingdom – October 2007
• Austin Film Festival Documentary Series, Austin, TX, - February 2008
• 42nd Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival, Brooklyn, NY – May 2008
• Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival, Toronto, Canada – November 2008
• Chicago Asian American Showcase, Chicago, IL – April 2007
• Vietnamese International Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland – October 2008
• Mela Festival, Oslo Norway – November 2008
• Berlin Asian Hot Shots, Berlin, Germany – January 2009
• Vietnamese International Film Festival, Irvine, CA – April 2009
• Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, Minneapolis, MN - April 2009
• Hay Quá Mini-Fest, New York, NY - June 2009
• PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, New York, NY – April/May 2010

Museum, university and foundation screenings

• Smith College, Northampton, MA – March 2007, April 2008
• Giddings-Graham Gallery, Brooklyn, NY – April 2007
• Vietnam Relief Effort, New York, NY - September 2007
• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY - February 2008
• Georgetown University, Washington, DC - April 2008
• University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA – May 2008
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY - May 2008
• University of Maryland, College Park, MD – December 2008
• New York University, New York, NY – Fall 2009
• Hanoi Cinemateque, Hanoi, Vietnam – January 2009
• Weisner Museum, Minneapolis, MN - March 2009
• Chapman University, Orange, CA – April 2009
• Yale University, New Haven, CT - May 2009
• New York University, New York, NY - October 2009
• University of Southern California, Los Angeles - January 2010
• University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, Bama Theatre - March 24, 2010

Reception

• "A remarkable story." – David Ansen of Newsweek
• "One of the Best Films of 2008." APA magazine
• "Authentic and doggedly tenacious." –San Francisco Chronicle
• "The most powerful documentary of the lingering effects of the Vietnam war on the Vietnamese."– Dr. Lois T. Vietri, Director, University of Maryland
• "Truly strong, human and brave." – William Sloan, curator, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)
• "The best documentary we've seen in years." – Chi-Hui Yang, Director, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival
• "Symbolic of what war can do to the innocent." – Cheryl Eddy, San Francisco Bay Guardian
• "A sensitive, engaging, and sometimes painfully revealing story about what happens to people long after the guns of war go silent." – Tom Dorsey, Courier-Journal
• "Personally chronicles the last days of the Vietnam War through the eyes of a family." – TimeOut New York magazine
• "Hidden family secrets, crazy family dynamics, and all that juicy stuff tied into politics and more." – Hyphen magazine
• "Show the indomitable will of humans and their ability to face adversity, recover and change." – Jasper Sharp, Midnight Eye
• "Beautiful, clever and haunting. It rescues those meanings and those people from history's iconic moments of the Vietnam War." – Aaron Woolf, King Corn
• "Shows us the power of the inquisitive mind seeking understanding and resolution." – Duc Bieu Pham, Campbell Express News

External links

• Official website for the film "Oh, Saigon"
• SF Film Festival - link for "Oh, Saigon"
• Oh, Saigon at the Internet Movie Database