Southeast Asian American Journeys

“We gotta write our own history books.”

Presented as a feature documentary with five chapters, SOUTHEAST ASIAN AMERICAN JOURNEYS follows different refugee communities across the US, from Montagnard in North Carolina to the Mien in Oregon. Interviews with California Vietnamese mamas with queer kids, a collective of Southeast Asian vendors at FDR Park, canvassing youth, and Hmong farmers who trade crops with their neighbors, unearth untold unique refugee stories.

History is planted in each film through farming systems, tapestry, cassette tapes, and bustling park marketplaces. Found in these conversations are desires for belonging, revitalization, and spaces where the past doesn’t define the landscape but becomes the foundation that promotes intergenerational understanding, cross-cultural exchange, and knowledge to pass down from one generation to another.

These odysseys answer the question: what does it mean to be in America? And through the different explorations of Montagnard, Hmong, Mien, Khmer and Vietnamese refugee communities, audiences witness a multi-faceted perspective of healing, collaboration and meaning-making. Resettlement looks different for everyone, but the transformative communities that blossom in each story pulsate with a love to understand the past, nurture the present, and nourish the future for Southeast Asian Americans everywhere.

– Alissa Tu