Newsreel Shorts: War and Its Aftermath
These short films from the Newsreel Collective focus on the lives of the Vietnamese as they struggled to survive the war and make a future for themselves.
In this recently rediscovered film, Noam Chomsky offers a candid critique of the Vietnam War which eerily resonates with current international policy in the U.S.
In liberated areas of South Vietnam, teenagers created beautiful puppets from the remains of downed U.S. warplanes. These young people traveled the countryside performing their unique brand of entertainment amidst the horrors of battle.
The process of assimilation is never easy for immigrant communities but the challenges were especially great for Vietnamese refugees living in the U.S. following a long and unpopular war. Takagi and Choy document struggles throughout the country that include a fishing community in Monterey, California whose new cheap labor force must face the rancor of the older residents, and low-income neighborhoods in Philadelphia in which Vietnamese immigrants are pitted against disenfranchised African-Americans.