This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.

Q&A with filmmaker Elizabeth Ai, moderated by UCLA Assistant Professor Thuy Vo Dang. Book signing with Ai for the film’s companion publication, New Wave: Rebellion and Reinvention in the Vietnamese Diaspora will begin at 6:30pm.

Film Screening at 7:30pm:

For a group of young, rebellious Vietnamese Americans in the 1970s and 1980s, the struggle to find identity took root in a community of musicians with big hair, vibrant fashion and synthesized beats. A culture clash was born, playing out in the careers and lives of New Wave musicians, documented in Elizabeth Ai’s kinetic film that skillfully weaves together the challenges of intergenerational understanding in the search for the American dream. The anchor of this mesmerizing film is its use of archival materials, a portal into a changing community grappling with transformation. Ai’s role as filmmaker and subject reveals raw personal questions from the aftermath of the Vietnam War, joining a growing artistic and archival response to retelling a community’s experiences and histories. 

DCP, color, 88 min. Director: Elizabeth Ai. With: Lynda Trang Đài, Ian “DJ BPM” Nguyen.

Sponsor(s): Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Information Studies, UCLA Film & Television Archive