A standalone feature documentary film FATHER’S PAINTINGS (wt) follows a daughter’s search for her late father Nghieu De’s rare paintings worldwide as she uncovers an untold history of the celebrated group of Vietnamese artists to which he belonged and his trajectory through the upheaval of pre- and post-1975 Vietnam.
FATHER’S PAINTINGS (WT) is intended as a standalone feature documentary film suitable for festival/theatrical/community screenings, broadcast and streaming. Its narrative arc––spanning pre-and post-1975 Vietnam to the present––is driven by my worldwide search for my famous artist father Nghieu De (1939–1998)’s lost paintings. The film’s narrative will interweave an intimate father-daughter story with the under-researched (even in Vietnam) untold story of the celebrated avant-garde Vietnamese art movement–– The Young Artists Association (Vietnamese: Hội Họa Sĩ Trẻ)––to which my father belonged.
Stylistically the film willl blend verite scenes of my visits with both famous and lesser known Hội Họa Sĩ Trẻ (HSST) artists who knew my father (and their children) and collectors of his work, including members of my family. Collectors will include those with whom my father traded art works for services (e.g.: his dentist). Scenes will show me searching archives in Santa Ana and France, exploring international networks for buying Vietnamese art, and visiting owners of Nghieu De’s art. Other elements will include my narrative voice; archival materials (historical and personal, including my mother’s prose memoirs) and artifacts; images of artworks; and reenactments in the style of Bao Nguyen’s documentaries. The soundtrack will likely integrate songs by legendary Vietnamese songwriter Pham Duy and period music to reflect a thriving cross-disciplinary period in literature, music, and visual arts.
Formed in Saigon in 1966 in the Republic of Vietnam (the South) HSST drove artistic innovation in the 1960s and 1970s as part of a wider cultural movement encompassing Saigon intelligentsia, poets, "Yellow Music" (Nhạc vàng) and anti-war folk music. The group rejected both the École des Beaux-Arts d'Indochine’s classical French colonial older generation "romantic classicism,” and the North’s "socialist realism.” Articulating the existential anxieties of a generation living through the Vietnam War, HSST embraced international modernism.
While some HHST artists would eventually push for abstract art’s recognition in Vietnam, others like my father went into exile after the dissolution of HHST in 1975, resettling in the US and France. Although initially optimistic about painting for a new audience after immigrating to California in 1985 with his family (I was 6, the youngest of his three children and closest to him), my father fell into a deep depression and stopped making art. In 1998 when I was 18 he died from cancer. Nothing of his rare paintings’ whereabouts was then known. Few reproductions exist.
As I search for his paintings I trace Nghieu De’s life and artistic trajectory through turbulent pre and post 1975 Vietnam. I’ve begun research and development, talking to researchers (e.g. Thuy Tran a Ph.D researcher focusing on HHST) and reading materials about the group and its artists. I have begun filming and interviewing my immediate family members (mom, sister, brother) in San Diego; diasporic HHST artists in Santa Ana area ( Nguyen Khai and Trinh Cung), and artists and collectors in Saigon (Ho Huu Linh, Uu Dam, collectors Binh Vo and Hai Vu Dinh). I’ve dentified 9 potential participants related to my father and the HHST group. I’m continuing to reach out to artists, collectors, and families, and will be in touch with my friend, curator Chuong Dai Vo in France to visit archives, collections, and artists. Trinh Cung mentions markets in Hong Kong known for trading Vietnamese art, so I will research other international locations like these.Thanks to my strong foundation in Vietnamese and rituals in Vietnamese American intergenerational communication, as Nghieu De’s daughter, even the most elite or well-known have been responsive, sharing about the vicissitudes of war and life.
The project’s questions include: How did this community of artists survive Vietnam’s turbulent history of war, hardship and ideological division? Why did some artists continue painting while others like my father stopped? What happens to these artists and their work across transnational boundaries? Themes of deracination, invisibility, not being seen as a whole person, economic and language barriers, and mental health will resonate with all immigrant/diasporic audiences internationally.
Khai Thu Nguyen is a Vietnamese American filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her work centers on stories rarely seen on screen, highlighting communities that have traditionally been overlooked. Her award-winning short films have screened at festivals across the U.S. Table Stakes explores the creators of Fracture Comics and their mission to carve out space for people of color in the comic book industry. Alexa and May, inspired by her mother’s complex relationship with an Amazon Alexa device, blend humor and heart. Khai’s debut feature film, THE DAO OF THAO has received support from Center for Asian American Media (CAAM), Who Knows Best Productions, Bay Area Video Coalition, and fiscal sponsorship from the Independent Documentary Association. The film is a presentation of CAAM and W. Kamau Bell's company, Who Knows Best Productions. Khai was a field producer on the HBO Max documentary series Not So Pretty, which investigates toxic chemicals in the beauty industry and their impact on communities like Vietnamese American nail salon workers. She is a 2024 BAVC National Mediamaker Fellow, an SFFILM Rainin Grant finalist, a 2023 BAVC Mediamaker Connect Mentee, and a Still I Rise Films Fellow. Before turning to filmmaking, Khai directed and produced theater in both the Bay Area and Vietnam. Her writing has been published in Asian Theatre Journal, Neoliberalism and Global Theatres, and American as Foreigner on Stage, supported by grants from Fulbright-Hays, the UC Pacific Rim Research Program, and the Royal Norwegian Embassy. Khai holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.
