Last Days in Vietnam - Documentary Feature

Rory Kennedy's Last Days in Vietnam Receives Academy Award® Nomination for   Documentary Feature   Here is  the link to watch the entire movie of Last Days in Vietnam (for free/complementary) until  the 7th  (midnight Eastern)     Boston, MA, January 15, 2015)  AMERICAN EXPERIENCE announced today that its production, Last Days in Vietnam, directed and produced by Rory Kennedy, has been nominated for the Academy Award® for Documentary Feature. This is Ms. Kennedy's first Academy Award® nomination, and the ninth for the series.    Last Days in Vietnam chronicles the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon. With the clock ticking and the city under fire, American officers on the ground faced a moral dilemma: follow official policy and evacuate U.S. citizens and their dependents only, or ignore orders and save the men, women, and children they had come to value and love in their years in Vietnam. At the risk of their careers and possible court-martial, a handful of individuals took matters into their own hands. Engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations, they waged a desperate effort to evacuate as many South Vietnamese as possible.   Following its world premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, an eight-month festival run, and 120 engagement theatrical run, Last Days in Vietnam will premiere on AMERICAN EXPERIENCE on Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) on PBS, in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Rory Kennedy, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Executive Producer Mark Samels, and participants from Last Days in Vietnam will be featured at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena on Monday, January 19, 2015.   "When we conceived of this film three years ago, we knew it was a powerful story of individual acts of courage set against a background of chaos," said AMERICAN EXPERIENCE Executive Producer Mark Samels. "But we didn't know how relevant it would prove to be. We are honored to have Last Days in Vietnam recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences."   "We are thrilled about this Oscar nomination and are incredibly proud to present this film on PBS as part of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE," said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager, General Audience Programming, PBS. "Congratulations to Rory, Mark and everyone involved in Last Days in Vietnam."   In addition to the upcoming broadcast on PBS, Last Days in Vietnam is available for rent or purchase on iTunes and Amazon Instant Video, as well as through many cable video-on-demand services. Following the PBS broadcast, the film will be able for streaming free onPBS.org/americanexperience. The DVD will also be available for purchase on ShopPBS.org and other retail outlets on April 28, 2015.     About the Filmmaker   Rory Kennedy (Director/Producer) is an Emmy Award-winning independent documentary filmmaker as well as co-founder and president of Moxie Firecracker Films. Her films cover an array of issues ranging from poverty to politics to human rights. Her work has been shown on PBS, HBO, A&E, MTV, and Lifetime. Her most recent project, Ethel, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on HBO, and nominated for five Primetime Emmys. Kennedy has directed and produced more than twenty-five documentaries including Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (Primetime Emmy Award for Best Non-Fiction Film, 2007); Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House; American Hollow; A Boy's Life; and Pandemic: Facing AIDS.   Mark Samels (Executive Producer) was named executive producer of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE, PBS' flagship history series, in 2003. Under Samels' leadership, the series has been honored with nearly every industry award, including the Peabody, Primetime Emmys, the duPont-Columbia Journalism Award, Writers Guild Awards, Oscar nominations, and Sundance Film Festival Audience and Grand Jury Awards. Prior to joining WGBH, Samels worked as an independent documentary filmmaker, an executive producer for several U.S. public television stations, and as a producer for the first co-production between Japanese and American television. A native of Wisconsin, he is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.   About AMERICAN EXPERIENCE   Television's most-watched history series, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2013. The series has been hailed as "peerless" (The Wall Street Journal), "the most consistently enriching program on television" (Chicago Tribune), and "a beacon of intelligence and purpose" (Houston Chronicle). On air and online, the series brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that have shaped America's past and present. Acclaimed by viewers and critics alike, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentaries have been honored with every major broadcast award, including thirty Emmy Awards, four duPont-Columbia Awards, and sixteen George Foster Peabody Awards, one most recently for the series represented by Freedom Riders, Triangle Fire, and Stonewall Uprising.   Exclusive corporate funding for AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is provided by Liberty Mutual Insurance. Major funding provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Additional funding for Last Days in Vietnam provided by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations: Dedicated to Strengthening America's Future Through Education; The Documentary Investment Group: Gretchen Stone Cook Charitable Foundation; Roxanne E. & Michael J. Zak; and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and public television viewers. AMERICAN EXPERIENCE is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston.   *   *   * CONTACT:   CaraMar Publicity Mary Lugo                        770-623-8190             lugo@negia.net Cara White                        843-881-1480             cara.white@mac.com Abbe Harris                       908-233-7990             abbe@caramar.net   For further information and photos visit http://www.pbs.org/pressroom

Garden Grove City Councilmember, Phat Bui, Urging Viet-Americans to Disrupt Businesses

There is nasty battle brewing between Riverside City Council and Garden Grove City Council  & Westminster City Council over a war that was over almost 40 years ago.

According to an OC Register article -

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/city-649580-vietnam-riverside.html

"....The Riverside City Council agreed in March, on a 4-3 vote, to enter into a sister-city relationship with Can Tho to cultivate cultural, economic and educational exchanges between them..."

"......Westminster and Garden Grove, the two cities that make up the largest portion of Little Saigon, have a stern message for Riverside: Your new sister-city relationship with Can Tho, Vietnam, is inappropriate and should be dissolved.   The Westminster City Council unanimously directed staff Wednesday to write a letter to Riverside, urging it to rescind its relationship with Can Tho, which the two cities formalized in a ceremony last week...."


Garden Grove City Councilmember, Phat Bui, takes it further by instructing Viet-Americans in Little Saigon to identify businesses in Riverside that are doing business in Vietnam and start demonstrate in front of their offices, with the purpose of disrupting their businesses.

 Last week, during the demonstration at the Riverside City Hall,  he urged the crowd to protest and walk into the office of a Vietnamese-American physician whom he claimed to have close relationship with Vietnamese officials.  The doctor's office is located nearby City Hall.

He has been sending to email groups  a detailed plan on how to make sure that Riverside City Council has to rescind their sister-city-relationship decision.   He is asking his people to "attack" UC Riverside and any major agricultural research companies as well as Riverside City Council.

Message from Phát Bùi: Chú ý!

[We won battle one. But the war is still unfinished.  Still a lot of works ahead and the road will be harder.

While Riverside take down the sign, they still insist to continue the relationship in the Press Releases today.  And two of the eight Council members stated they still support and will vote to keep the relationship.   The Council, UC Riverside, and major Agriculture Research companies in Riverside want to continue the relationship.  We need to hit them harders.

What we need to do going forward:

1.       Riveside Council Meeting:  Feb 3^rd, 6:30pm

Dr Huu Vo and Anh Phan Ky Nhon, rally as many as Residents/American
Veterans as possible 50 to 100 to come to the City Council Chamber.
Fill out the card to speak at Public Communication to argue for termination of the relationship.
We will work out talking points.  Prepare 40 or more to speak against.  Lobby others State/Fed
Elected Officials to come or sending letter to Riverside Council.  Ask Rep. Ed Royce, Rep Sanchez,
Rep. Tom Daly, Former Senator Correa to help lobbying Riverside County Congress Rep. to help.

2.       Organize a Committee to step up Propaganda Warfare,  Raising money to sending out negative
campaign against council that continue to support Can Tho.  Asking tens of thousands people
from all over the country to email to Riverside Council, UCR.  Let’s them hear our voice wide and loud
from everywhere.  Enlist Hoi Dong Huong Can Tho to join fight.
3.       Form alliance with other organizations like enlisting BPSOS in Washington to help lobbying member of US Congress to help
4.       Step up protesting at Dr Doan Vien office
5.       Gather thousands more Riverside Signatures  (all races).
6.       Prepare Lobbying Kit to Lobby UCR (UC Riverside)
7.       Identify businesses in Riverside that do business with Can Tho
8.       More Protests !!!!  We have to motivate ourselves to do it once every month or every other months.]

Andrew Do Wins by 43 Votes

It is finally over.  All the votes have been counted and the former Garden Grove City Councilmember and deputy DA won by 43 votes over the former State Senator Lou Correa.

What is next?   A recount will unlike change the result and it just drags the process another 2  weeks.  Correa still has a lot of money left in the campaign fund so he can afford the $2,400 per day cost.

Or he can save the money and effort to run against Do in 2016.

County Supervisor First District, Short Term

Completed Precincts: 101 of 101

	Vote Count	Percentage
ANDREW DO	18,905	39.1%
LOU CORREA	18,862	39.0%
CHRIS PHAN	7,857	16.3%
CHUYEN VAN NGUYEN	1,879	3.9%
LUPE MORFIN-MORENO	834	1.7%

* Indicates Incumbent Candidate, if any

The Lotus and The Storm

Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez

Cordially Invite You to Meet Vietnamese American Guest Author Lan Cao

Author of

"The Lotus and The Storm”

The event will feature a raffle for the first 50 guests, musical performance, and a question and answer session.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Program 2 – 3 PM

Reception 3 - 4 PM

At Le Petit Trianon Theatre

72 N. 5th Street, San Jose, CA 95112

 

 

To RSVP, please access http://bit.ly/1GL0Us2

For questions or to co-sponsor, please contact Vân Lan Trương, (408) 299-5025, Betty Dương, (408) 299-5026, vanlan.truong@bos.sccgov.org

San Jose D8 City Council 2016 Race Already?

About  two weeks ago,  Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese and his wife, Pattie, came to the swearing-in ceremony for Cam Van Le to be the new board president of  East Side Union High School District.   Afterward, he asked her to go out for coffee at a later date to catch up.

Of course, the news  quickly went viral in the Viet community that Pattie Cortese is planning her bid for city council.  The community always has a soft spot for Dave and his wife for all their supports of the community during the last 8 years.  So it was a welcoming rumor. 

And soon enough,  Pattie is appointed as the new school board trustee to fill the seat vacated by now City Councilmember Magdalena Carrasco. 

The conventional wisdom of this new appointment is that both Lan Nguyen and Cam Van Le will not be running for city council in 2016.  They would not vote for Pattie if they decided to have a run at the council seat. 

Cam Van is still smarting over the council race lost to Attorney Tam Nguyen.  And she still is bitter about her hard fight against Anthony Phan to prevent him taking her school board seat.  And it would be too much for her to move to D8 after transplanted herself to D7 for the council race last year.

Meanwhile, Lan Nguyen has been a person non-grata in the community for the last 6 years after his weak city council election result in 2008.

LSI does not know for sure if Pattie will run  for city council or not but whatever she does, the Viet community will show strong support for her. 

 

Androw Do's Lead Widens

    With only 1264 provisional ballots left, Andrew Do has widened his lead over Lou Correa since yesterday.  He is leading by 239 votes now instead of 2 votes.    The trend is not looking good for Lou Correa.   The provisional ballot is set for counting tomorrow morning.  

Will there be a recount? 

County Supervisor First District, Short Term Completed Precincts: 101 of 101 Vote Count Percentage ANDREW DO 18,230 39.3% LOU CORREA 17,991 38.8% CHRIS PHAN 7,592 16.4% CHUYEN VAN NGUYEN 1,806 3.9% LUPE MORFIN-MORENO 800 1.7% * Indicates Incumbent Candidate, if any  Top

The Election Breakdown for OC Supervisor D1 Race

The race will not be decided until later this week or beyond depending if there is a recount request or not.   However, the preliminary numbers give an insight into why Lou Correa is behind Andrew Do for now.

LSI will try to dissect the voting demographics as being reported  -

Vietnamese-American - 46%
Hispanic - 17%
Republican - 41%
Democrat - 37%
Independent - 22%

The interesting number is that even though Viet-American registered voters only constitute about 25% of the total registered voters, in this special election, they made up close to half of the total vote casted.

Andrew Do would have trounced Lou Correa if the Viet-American votes were not split between the three Viet-American candidates.