F.O.B. II: Art Speaks - Vietnamese American Art Show

Tram Le and Lan Duong, Co-Curators of F.O.B. II: Art Speaks

F.O.B. II: Art Speaks was an art show featuring over 50 visual and performing artists from the Vietnamese and Vietnamese American community. The event was organized by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and co-curated by Tram Le and Lan Duong. It was held at the VAALA Center in Santa Ana, CA. The show was scheduled to run from January 9-18, 2009, but within the community where bitter memories of the war in Vietnam still run deep, political activists came out to protest the art show when they falsely believed that the art supported communism. The show organizers shut down the show three days early.

I intended to interview Tram and Lan at the VAALA Center on the night of a live performance event that was part of the show. But I arrived in Orange County only to find the doors locked and the show canceled. Fortunately I was able to catch up with the co-curators at a restaurant where they were having dinner with some of the artists and other supporters. Even though it had been a long hard day dealing with the protesters, the local law and the media, they agreed to do an interview. Inside the restaurant was too dark and noisy, so the only place I could do the interview was in the parking lot.

For more information on VAALA visit www.vaala.org

Part 1


Part 2

Little Tokyo community speaks up about Obama's Inauguration

I went to the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles to watch the historic inauguration of President Barack Obama on a giant screen with other people from the community. Afterwards I asked people what they thought about the inauguration of the new president. Check it out! You can watch the high quality version on the YouTube page.

Ping Pong Playa DVD Launch

pictured: Jessica Yu, Smith Cho, Jimmy Tsai, Roger Fan, Jim Lau
image: Eric Nakamura

"Ping Pong Playa" is a comedy by Academy Award winning director, Jessica Yu. The director and cast members dropped by GR2 in West Los Angeles to meet with fans for the release of the "Ping Pong Playa" DVD. If you haven't guessed it, the film is about ping pong.

For more info visit www.pingpongplaya.com.

movie trailer:

San Diego Asian Film Festival

From Los Angeles I've gone down to San Diego a few times for the San Diego Asian Film Festival. 2008 was its 9th year of bringing Asian and Asian American films to the community. They are really organized and put together a great event. Unfortunately, I'm too poor to attend their closing night ceremony dinner (I think its a fund raiser as well). But if you have a chance, I recommend visiting San Diego in October, then you can catch some cool cinema as well.

LINK: San Diego Asian Film Festival

Wong Fu Productions

Ouch! I haven't touched this project for almost a year! I have a really good excuse though, I started working full time and just didn't have the time to put together any more interviews. But Fresh Off the Box was always in the back of my mind. There were other issues as well -- wanting to improve the look of the site, figuring out how to get better video quality, finding a new host... I did shoot some more over the summer, but have been slow to edit. But I plan on keeping this project alive, so if anyone is reading this, thanks for your support!

Wong Fu Productions are three nice guys who like to make videos and post them on YouTube. They've built up quite a following. I cornered them at Nucleus Gallery in Alhambra where they were doing a meet and greet with their fans. Sorry the video quality is so crappy. Enjoy!



LINK: Wong Fu Productions

David Ngo

Jackie Bong Wright entered a beauty contest and won. She was 64 years old at the time. Her story is more than just about a beauty pageant for seniors--it's about a woman who was displaced by war and started up a new life in a new land. At its heart, her story represents the Vietnamese community and the realization of the American dream.

David Ngo grabbed a video camera and documented her story. The documentary, "The Queen from Virginia: The Jackie Bong Wright Story" screened at a few film festivals including the VC Film Festival where it won the Best Documentary Feature in 2006. The doc is now available on DVD at www.doubleohthree.com.

David talks about "The Queen from Virginia"


David talks about the Second Wave of Vietnamese American filmmakers

Allan Axibal

I first met Allan as a reporter for a website at UCLA called Asia Pacific Arts. This was before he co-wrote a theatrical show, performed in front of packed houses, and has been non-stop touring for the past four years. I can say I knew him when.

His show has a controversial name -- "N*gger Wetb*ck Ch*nk". These words might never go away, but we can try and take the hate out of them by challenging the way people think about racial stereotypes. Listen to what Allan has to say about it:





N*W*C Promo