Filmmaker Elizabeth Ai weaves an interesting documentary on California’s Vietnamese New Wave craze and the disaffection of many Vietnamese “refugees” that fled to California after the fall of South Vietnam. Ai prefers to call Vietnamese fleeing the communist regime as “escape artists”.
Ai was abandoned by her mother being raised by an aunt and her grandparents. Her mother was too busy making a living to support an extended family to spend time with her two daughters or was it she preferred gambling with less than savoury boyfriends. Ai states that the making of this film was an attempt to forget her unhappy childhood but instead it revived her past. A common theme of first-generation refugee children in the United States, whether Vietnamese, Cambodian or Mexican is the long hours at work their parents must spend to survive in a strange world. Ai was no exception.
Through Ai’s own observations and those from record producers, DJs, family members, and New Wave singers the history of California Vietnamese New Wave is set forth. The younger generation attempting to assert their independence from their parents and a need to fit in fueled New Wave.
For music buffs a particularly compelling film but more important is a journey of self discovery of Elizabeth Ai. She had less than an ideal childhood but the birth of her first child and the questions she raised about why grandmother was yet to be seen by her force Ai to reconnect with her mother who is armed with a variety of excuses for her dereliction of motherhood. I am left with the impression whether there is true forgiveness or an attempt to try and create a normal family life for her daughter, a childhood she never had.
“New Wave” had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on 8June2024.
RKS Film Rating: 83/100.
Set the Bar 