When Bao Wow Wow Bakery is robbed, Bao and Kwan grapple with whether to call the police. They don't want a call to the police to lead to more violence, but how will they recover their money? Through song and dance they consider what really keeps us safe.

Film by Oanh Vu

Oanh Vu is a puppeteer, filmmaker, educator, and community organizer. She is a 2nd generation Vietnamese American who grew up in rural Minnesota. She uses humor and the playfulness of puppetry to tell stories of healing for herself and her Southeast Asian community.

Oanh Vu

Credits:

Written by Oanh Vu with Liping Vong

Starring: liping vong, Oanh Vu, and Ty Chapman

Directed by Chamindika Wanduragala and Oanh Vu

Director of Photography by Josh Dyrud

Edited by Jordan Lee Thompson

Music by Charlie McCarron

Executive Produced by Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop

Special Thanks to Keefer Court Bakery

Nowhere, a place where appears in Korn’s imaginary world in a short period of time. What will happen if he can meet someone there? Are they able to communicate?

Screenplay Writer:

Chanthasone "Joey" Xoumphonphakdy

Joey is a junior student at National Institute of Fine Arts, department of Visual Communication Design, majoring in Film and Animation. ‘Nowhere’ is the first film in which they were the screenwriter; they also acted as one of the editors in post-production.

Chanthasone "Joey" Xoumphonphakdy     (Screenplay Writer)

Director:

Xaypaseuth "Dom" Xayyalath

Dom is currently studying at National Institute of Fine Arts, majoring Film and Animation in the department of Visual Communication Design. They are pursuing their dream to be a Film Director and “Nowhere” is the first short film which they've directed.

Xaypaseuth "Dom" Xayyalath (Director)

Content note: single gunshot and blood scene, suggestive themes

A man comes to the aid of a woman in distress whose engine refuses to start up in the cold. In gratitude, she invites him to a party at her place with some friends. Unbeknownst to him, things are about to get interesting real fast.

Director/Writer/Producer:

Vibol S. Sungkriem

Vibol was born in Battambang, Cambodia amid a civil war, resettling in the Bronx, NY in the early 80s. Today, Vibol has written many screenplays. His experience ranges from not only working behind the cameras but also being skilled in the field of lighting, Pro Tools, sound recording, and editing. You can see more of his work and hire his team for film and video production services ranging from movie, commercial, promotion, and more at vibolfilms.com/.

Vibol Films is currently seeking spaces to screen their latest documentary, Khmer Traditional Ceramic Artist, based on Yary Livan, a Khmer traditional ceramist living in Lowell. He is one of only two master Cambodian ceramicists and is recognized for his exemplary artistic creativity and contribution to Khmer culture and arts.

Vibol Sungkriem, Vibol Films

Community organizing saved KH Supermarket from demolition two years ago, but after a long fight against gentrification, the Cambodian American market in Long Beach, CA is ending its chapter.

Director: Brandon Soun

Brandon Soun is a Cambodian American filmmaker born and raised in Long Beach, California. As a recent graduate of Asian American Studies at UCLA, he gained a passion for storytelling through the EthnoCommunications program, where a community-based approach is highly emphasized. His personal work centers around the Southeast Asian community, addressing issues such as intergenerational trauma, gentrification, and immigration justice. Brandon was recently a fellow of the 2022 Armed-With-A-Camera Fellowship hosted by Visual Communications, and currently works as a Digital Organizer with Khmer Girls in Action.

Brandon Soun

Director: Lan Nguyen

Lan Nguyen grew up in Long Beach, California as a daughter of Vietnamese refugees. She studied journalism and education at Northwestern University, and attained her MA in Asian American Studies at UCLA. Lan is a 2019 NeXt Doc Fellow and utilizes filmmaking as a medium for social change. Her 2019 documentary, Fighting For Family, won the Loni Ding Award in Social Issue Documentary at the 2020 CAAMFest.

Lan Nguyen

After Theo discovers that he was deceived by hidden secrets in the world he lives in, he proceeds to find out what his brother was into and attempts to put an end to all the corruption on his own.

Film still from "The Saving". Click image to find the full-length film on Vimeo.

Director: Rocky Her

Rocky Her is a freelance actor and filmmaker from the twin cities in Minnesota. He holds experiences in martial arts, fight choreography (for stage and film), acting (most known for Opposite Blood, 2012), video editing, cinematography, and graphic design. He graduated in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in digital film and video production from Art Institutes. He established his production RockaFilm Studio in 2016 when he started production for his first feature film called "The Saving" an independent martial arts action film.

Proficient in stunt and fight choreography, he hopes to inspire new and hidden talents to emerge and extend into the light of media and show business while seeking to raise the standards in the film and movie production industry within his community, specifically in the action and martial arts genre.

You can find more of Rocky’s work at youtube.com/rockafilmstudio

Rocky Her

Mike is the child of immigrant Karen Family. He moved to Saint Paul after his high school graduation. He is working at a local Sushi Shop to support his daily living. Despite that he has a dream to become a professional Mix Martial Art Fighter. He goes to the gym occasionally to fulfill his dream. His idol is a famous MMA Champion who also emigrated from Burma called “Aung La-Nsang”. He is famous as “Burmese Python”. Mike’s dream is to go to the MMA ring and get recognition and leave a legacy like Burmese Python. The documentary film will show the balance between the Dream and Reality of Mike. We will see Mike’s struggle of life and thriving to reach his dream.

Director: Thet Oo Maung

Thet Oo Maung is a dedicated humanitarian, self-taught painter, photographer and videographer. He has used his camera skills to amplify the voices of those who have been marginalized, forgotten about, or silenced. His work has dealt with civil war, landmines, people with disabilities, child education, child healthcare, women empowerment, digital rights, illegal logging, land grabbing and environmental degradation. He organized and ran the first underground human rights film festival in Burma, the “One Step Film Forum”. After the Military Coup in February 2021, he exiled from home country and resettled in the United State together with his family. He has won the Juries Choice Award at Singapore Myanmar Film Festival (2013), The Best Sound Award at Singapore Myanmar Film Festival (2015), The Best Documentary Award at Girona International Film Festival (2016), and the Special Juries Mention Award at Myanmar Script Fund and Memory Film Festival (2016).

Thet Oo Maung

My Borrowed Name is a film about reclaiming your identity. Soonhwa Huang immigrated from Laos with his family with a different last name. They took the last name of their friend who worked in the government to help them go through the process faster. Once they were all in the United States and became national citizens, they were finally able to change their last name back to Huang. This film centers around Kelly Huang and how she grew up not feeling fully Lao or Chinese. She will uncover how your last name ties you to who you are and how language is important to connecting you to your culture and heritage.

Director: Kelly Huang

Kelly Huang is a Minneapolis based documentary filmmaker, video marketer, and actor. She has over 6 years of experience in digital video marketing, starting at 75F, a Minnesota based tech “scale up” in the smart building controls industry. This year she was a Minnesota State Arts Board grantee and a part of the New Angle Fellowship with the St. Paul Neighborhood Network. She has acted on stages such as SteppingStone theater, Park Square and Theater Mu.

You can find more of Kelly’s work at kellyhuangfilms.com

Kelly Huang

A young teen’s life comes to a bitter end when a chance encounter with a law man leads to his death.

Director: Dan Yang

Dan Yang, 29, is a proud alumni of Columbia College in Chicago. There he majored in Cinema Science graduating with Cum Laude Honors. Dan has been on the committee board of the Qhia Dab Neej Film Festival for the better part of 6 years. He has helped teach young students the basics of filmmaking and aiding the advancement of Hmong films. Dan is also one of the producers/directors for the first Hmong Anthology film Spirits Dawn, where he launched a successful Kickstarter Campaign and toured the film to 5 different states as well as raising over $1000 for multiple educational programs. Dan is also a proud recipient of The Cultural Stars Grant Program, where he produced a film called Rice Street in 2020. Rice Street was accepted into the Minneapolis International Film Festival as well as the Oregon Asian American Film Festival. Following that in 2021/2022, Dan received the Jerome Foundation’s Artist Development grant as well as the Minnesota State Arts Board grant to aid in the development and production of “Bird’s Nest”, a film based on the shooting of Fong Lee in 2006.

You can find more of Dan’s work at crossstitchmedia.com

Dan Yang

This is an experimental dance short film, and craigslist ad, following Hoàng’s memories of her auntie’s long hair and how it came to be a symbol of luxury and malevolence in rural Vietnam. Auntie was the only family member who accepted Hoàng’s parents’ forbidden mixed Teochew / Vietnamese marriage. After their father was imprisoned by the Communist party and their mother was banned from bringing her mixed heritage children into her parents’ home, Auntie generously took Hoàng and her siblings in. Six year old Hoàng and her siblings were forced to perform child labor to support their livelihood through bamboo weaving and sugar cane foraging on Auntie’s farm.

Movement and music follow the story’s disjointed narration that is common to many immigrants’ stories of the past. It took Hoàng more than 45 years to accept, recall, and feel comfortable to share these fragmented memories. Ten years after growing it out, the dancer is advertising their virgin (no chemicals) and remy (cut and tied in its natural direction) hair for sale to raise funds for Hoàng’s oldest sister, the only sibling who could not make it out of Vietnam after the war.

Dance & Concept: Sarah Nguyễn

Sarah Nguyễn is a movement and information researcher with experience exploring dance and data in Sacramento, San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, and Seattle. Their research explores the ephemerality of movement, embodied practice and performance, and how humans make, retain, and reconstruct memory as acts of sensemaking around identity and events. Through research, movement, and intermedia collaborations, Sarah creates live and digital performances to inform and spark critical inquiry among viewers and participants, as community members. Their work has been featured in Radical Networks NYC, !!Con Santa Cruz, CA, Northwest Film Forum, The Craft Performance & Brew NYC, and Southeast Asia x Seattle Film & Literature Festival. Previously, she was a librarian for Luna Dance Institute, an archivist for the Mark Morris Dance Group Archive Project, and a 2021-2022 Dance/USA Fellow in Dance Archiving and Preservation for AXIS Dance Company. Currently, she is supporting efforts to preserve the cultural heritage of the social dance movement, Hustle.

You can find Sarah's work at vimeo.com/bailaste

Sarah Nguyễn

Music Composition and VFX: Ramin Rahni

Ramin is an artist based in Brooklyn. Ramin is an artist based in Brooklyn.

You can find more of their work at raminrahni.com

Ramin Rahni

The story of two high school students, Fon and Mali, who met, got to know each other and learned how to share a variety of feelings all at once.

Screenplay:

Pitivanh "PouPou" Phamuang

PouPou is currently studying at National Institute of Fine Arts, in Vientiane, Laos. She is majoring in Film and Animation in the department of Visual Communication Design. MALI is her first screenplay. She also took on a role of assistant director on the production team, and assistant of editing on post-production.

Pitivanh 'Poupou' Phamuang

Director:

Jedsadaphone "Bamby" Luanglath

Jedsadaphone "Bamby" Luanglath

A student of Visual Communication Design having a desire of having his own movie released on Netflix.

Art Director:

Khuanchai "Jacksmins" Panyvong

Khuanchai studies at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Laos. They are an illustrator, art director, and animator.

Khuanchai "Jacksmins" Panyvong

Employee of the Month follows a family of 3 as they deal with issues extending from a stubborn landlord. After tragedy strikes, the timid factory worker Jin decides to ask his boss for a raise. This short film examines the descent into despair as well as the inability to break out of inclinations and ideals ingrained in the self.

Director: Mai Moua Thao

Mai Moua Thao is a storyteller whose main medium is film. Thao also works with photography, theater/dance performance, and writing. Thao’s artistic journey serves as a reflection, resistance, and re-imagination of the world we are positioned in. She is a first gen. Macalester College graduate with a B.A. in Media & Cultural Studies and Theatre & Dance. Currently Thao is producing the pilot for Modern Shaman and working on other shorts. In her free time she likes to cry over Korean dramas and spend time with her 4 younger siblings.

Mai Moua Thao

After the closure of their mother’s nail salon at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a queer filmmaker works with their mother to recover and articulate the legacy of the salon for their refugee family. A film by Quyên Nguyen-Le.

Director: Quyên Nguyen-Le

Quyên Nguyen-Le (they/them) is a queer vietnamese filmmaker born to refugee parents in the place where Chumash and Tongva lands meet (San Fernando Valley, Los Ángeles). Quyên's work focuses on the ways histories are deeply felt in the quotidian every-day.

Their short films Nước (Water/Homeland) (2016) and Hoài (Ongoing, Memory) (2018) have screened in film festivals, art galleries, universities, libraries, and community spaces worldwide. In Living Memory (2022), a documentary about their mother's nail salon that closed at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, is now available on PBS and World Channel.

After dropping out of film school, Quyên finished B.A. degrees in Comparative Literature and Philosophy, Politics & Law from the University of Southern California's program in Santiago, Chile.

Outside of filmmaking, Quyên is trying really hard to heal from and break generational cycles of violence and poverty.

You can reach them @smellydurianface on Instagram. Visit quyennl.com to see more of their work.

Quyên Nguyen-Le

Vignettes based on the posts from Jenny Wang's IG.

Director: Loan Hoang

Loan Hoang is a Vietnamese American producer and writer based in Los Angeles. As an immigrant and woman of color, she is passionate about sharing stories that authentically portray her communities’ lived experiences and intersectionalities. Her work has been featured as a Staff Pick on Vimeo and selected for Athens International Film Festival, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, MARFA Film Festival, New Orleans International Film Festival, RAW Film Festival, San Diego Asian Film Festival (Best Narrative Short), Seattle Asian Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Viet International Film Festival, and OUTFEST Fusion Film Festival.

She is currently writing a miniseries showcasing underground Vietnamese youth culture in the early 2000s based on her experience during that time with Orange County’s Vietnamese Catholic Scouts community.

More information about her work can be found at www.sincerelyloan.com.

Loan Hoang

First Dance is a short film about an elderly Hmong couple celebrating their wedding anniversary with loved ones. Before the celebration, guests speculate and gossip about the protagonist’s transition from identifying as a Hmong woman to a Hmong man. This film is not a coming-of-age or coming-out story. It explores how one comes to terms with the transition. Film dedicated to Seng Hang.

Director: Blongsha Hang

Blongsha Hang is a filmmaker, screenwriter, and teacher/mentor within the arts community in the Twin Cities. He was born and raised in Minnesota. He has worked within various art and festival spaces such as MSPIFF, Walker Art Museum, and FilmNorth’s youth program JuiceMedia. He currently coaches gymnastics at Minneapolis Gymnastics in south Minneapolis.

Blongsha Hang