Oanh-Nhi Nguyen’s Taking Root: Southeast Asian Stories of Resettlement in Philadelphia is a documentary which analyzes the history and modern realities of Southeast Asian refugees who found a new home in Philadelphia. The documentary – a three-part webseries that will be presented at Viet Film Fest in its entirety, with the three parts spliced together to form a feature film – contextualizes Southeast Asian presence in the United States as a product of American interventionism and war in the region. In exploring the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees, the documentary addresses the early challenges, racism, and poverty experienced by those traumatized by war, highlighting the enduring impact of American structural violence and warmaking. The film highlights efforts by Southeast Asian refugees to contest historical erasure and distortion and the agency of those who had been forced from their homes due to conflict and their endeavors to form communities abroad.

Taking Root, which premiered at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival, articulates the importance of inherited and intergenerational trauma which informs the Southeast Asian refugee experience. Adamant in its critique of American militarism and imperialism, the film explores how violence from war leads to violence and oppression experienced in its aftermath. Comprehensive in scope, yet refreshingly specific in the local history of the greater Philadelphia area, the film captures the experiences and histories of diverse communities which make up the Southeast Asian diaspora, bringing in voices from the Cambodian and Hmong communities which are often ignored in discussion of the Vietnam conflict.

By Y Nguyen