No More Sad Songs

New Wave

Directed by Elizabeth Ai

Elizabeth Ai’s introspective documentary tells the story of new wave, a musical phenomenon popularized by young Vietnamese refugees in the 80s, where Italo disco was covered by singers with gloriously spiked hair and shoulderpads. Ai weaves archival footage, interviews with industry legends (such as Lynda Trang Dai, “the Vietnamese Madonna”), and her own story of the new wave—of postwar trauma, of coming of age in a new world, and of escapist, synth-pop daydreams on an open, Southern California road.