Thuc Nguyen: What has been the audience reaction at your screenings?
Elizabeth Ai: It’s been very emotional to finally be able to share and meet our audience! To be able to hear from the people and community we made it for is incredibly gratifying.

TN: Your mother’s younger sister, Myra, was a parental figure for you growing up, and who introduced you to Vietnamese New Wave music. Where do you think you would be if you didn’t have her?
EA: I’m not really sure, but we’d probably be a lot worse off. Those handful of years when my aunt stepped in were really tough. They were when my mom had to step up professionally by running nail salon businesses to take care of our family. Myra held space for me and my sister; she was and is so generous and selfless, and I know we’re better for it. We’re all still very close today.

TN: You grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, closer to Los Angeles. Do you remember anything about this New Wave scene happening in nearby Orange County, California, as a kid, outside of the cassette tapes your aunt and uncles had?
EA: I was just a kid back in the ‘80s, so I was really just tagging along for the ride. When there was time, our family would go to Little Saigon and hang at Phước Lộc Thọ (Asian Garden Mall on Bolsa Avenue in Westminster, California).

I remembered these pilgrimages were mainly for food, but there were also times when our family would use it to reconnect with extended members of our family and/or friends or show visitors or newcomers from Vietnam around. I didn’t quite understand it back then. And as I got older (tween years), I remember feeling like it was a big chore. Now looking back, I get it—it was one of the few places they could feel some semblance of home and community.

TN: It’s taken six years to make this feature documentary film. What are the best things you learned? What were your biggest challenges and triumphs?
EA: I’ve learned so much about my community but really, I couldn’t believe how much I learned about myself and my family. All the unspoken narratives that were never shared between us finally came to light in the process of filmmaking.

I’ll be processing these learnings and emotions for all of my life. Making this story with my team and sharing it finally is the biggest honor of my life. I feel free—free from the shame I carried around all my life because I thought perhaps, it was just my own experience with my dysfunctional family when really it was all of us.

This community has suffered so much from the violence and displacement. I know the effect of our community’s pain ripples through generations on such a personal level for everyone. I hope everyone gets a chance to revisit their past in this way.

TN: Have you heard of/seen any comparable music movements, refugee popular culture movements like this anywhere?
EA: In terms of comparable music movements, I’m fascinated by the music mixing, mashing, and reinventions of various diaspora groups. I was pleasantly surprised to learn through the process of making this film that there was a parallel thing that happened in the Persian community right here in SoCal too. I hope someone else is making that film!