Film Screening: Mother, Métis, Memory

Hosted by Vietnamese Boat People and Co-sponsored by Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, Mother, Métis, Memory is a documentary film by Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn

Throughout the First Indochina War, between 1945-1954, France had mobilized an estimated 60,000 tirailleurs in Vietnam. Tirailleurs, or Senegalese soldiers, were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army and among the forces deployed to Indochina to combat the Vietnamese uprising against French rule. After the beginning of the end of the French Empire, hundreds of Vietnamese women and their children migrated to West Africa with Senegalese husbands, some voluntarily but others against their will. Some soldiers left their wives and took only their children, while others took children not their own and raised them in Senegal without connection to their Vietnamese origins. This powerful film captures interviews conducted in 2018 with the Senegalese-Vietnamese communities in Dakar and Malika Senegal.

The film screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker and VBP Podcast Host Tracey Nguyễn Mang as part of the Podcast Season 6 theme, Ba, Mẹ ơi (Dear Dad and Mom).

This film will give viewers a glimpse into Tuấn Andrew Nguyễn’s exhibition that will be opening on June 29, 2023 at the New Museum 235 Bowery in New York City. This will be Nguyễn’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., showcasing a new film and two recent video projects alongside works from the artist’s broader practice.