Director: Elizabeth Ai
Writer: Elizabeth Ai
Stars: Lynda Trang Dai, Ian Nguyen, Elizabeth Ai
Synopsis: Exploring the defiant Vietnamese new wave music scene, a filmmaker takes a vulnerable, personal look at her community revisiting their unexamined past.
The glory and the importance of the documentary, as a filmmaking form, is wide and varied. Any subject that strikes your interest likely has at least one film covering that very topic. More important though, are the documentaries that introduce you to a culture, or subculture, that you didn’t know existed. The true importance of these documentaries is not showing you a strange new world, it is in finding common ground despite those differences. If you told me that I would see parts of myself in the story of young Vietnamese immigrants in the 1980s, I am not sure that I would easily believe you. And yet, New Wave does just that, and more.
One might think that New Wave, from the title, would be purely about music, but it delves deeper and in a more roundabout way. Part of the way through, you might even be tempted to call it unfocused. But film sometimes opens itself up slowly, just as life does. New Wave follows Elizabeth Ai, who starts out exploring her (and other young Vietnamese people’s) obsession with new wave music, Vietnamese voices covering that music, and her own childhood motivations. But, as many filmmakers will tell you, especially of the documentary variety, sometimes this artform has a mind of its own. Ai finds herself discovering where her own story is headed, as well as the story of Vietnamese people connecting with an American experience in their own way.
As the film begins, the energy pulses from New Wave almost uncontrollably. The score, the clothing, the reimagined scenes from Ai’s own past burst with life. It is infectious and we find ourselves pleasantly lost in that created world. The journey deeper into the Vietnamese immigrant experience is helped by this introduction that brings us in close and makes us connect with their stories. The next portion of the film focuses on Lynda Trang Dai, a niche music star who performed covers of literally every 80s artist one can imagine. Lynda, shown through her video past and her interviewed present, holds a deep sadness, frustration, and anger. Director and writer Ai expertly shows us the reasons why through her Lynda’s current silent rage and past judgment by local media.
This barely contained personal and collective anger is detailed both through Lynda’s own words and, unexpectedly, Ai’s own relationship with her mother. Both Lynda and Ai’s mother, despite being quite different, share a difficulty balancing financial support and emotional connection with their families. As the film loops back to the world of new wave and some painful moments, the reality of the world comes crashing in. Like many children in the 1980s, they were allowed to do basically whatever they wanted and the inherent danger and bitterness of these choices rises to the surface. But where this film truly soars is in the difficult exploration of the collective trauma of the Vietnamese people. This manages, incredibly, to tie all of these disparate stories together brilliantly. As one might imagine, it is difficult for both the older and younger generations to discuss this horrific past. Both groups clearly want to leave it behind and start anew.
The parents suffered hideous traumas in that war-torn nation. Their children, whether they were consciously aware or not, experienced it both first and second-hand. But the difficulties of life in the United States as a non white person come to the forefront in numerous painful ways.
Looking back at when they began their lives in America, an unnatural level of work and hustling was needed for both survival and to send money home to relatives. It would be hard to imagine people more in need of escape than these refugees. For some, that escape was music, for others, less adaptive choices were made.
The film never takes the easy way out by giving us a target to blame. Ai, as both director and subject, bravely puts her own familial trauma on display; first, over difficult memories and one-sided phone conversations, and eventually, through honest attempts at reconnection. Again, like our lives, there are no simple answers here, and no perfect relationships. We are all doing our best, and our traumas, both personal and collective, make this process difficult. New Wave manages to find a middle ground allowing us all our faults and a real chance at reconciliation.
