Daughter From Danang
by Vicente Franco, Gail Dolgin
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gerald Ford, Heidi Neville-Bub, Mai Thi Kim, Tom Miller, Tran Tuong NhuDirector: Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco
Cinematographer: Vicente Franco
Producer: Gail Dolgin
Editor: Kim Roberts
Producer: Sunshine Ludder
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Vietnamese (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-02-17
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Pbs (Direct)
Movie Reviews of Daughter From Danang
Movie Review: BLOOD IS NOT ALWAYS THICKER THAN WATER...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a interesting and absorbing documentary that focuses on a very personal memoir that is set against the backdrop of one of the most turbulent episodes of the latter half of the twentieth century: the Vietnam War. Archival footage of the Vietnam War is interjected in the film to heighten the viewer's awareness and to better ground the film in the context out of which this all too human drama arose.
The documentary focuses on Heidi Bub, a woman in her late twenties who more than twenty years ago was airlifted from Vietnam during Operation Babylift when she was seven years old. Heidi, it turns out, was born Mai Thi Hiep to a Vietnamese mother who had had a fleeting relationship with an American soldier, who was Heidi's biological father. Her mother had formed this liaison after her husband had temporarily abandoned her and their children to fight in the war. Times were hard during the days of the Vietnam War, and she had to do what she needed in order to ensure her survival and that of her children.
In the waning days of the war, with the Americans fleeing Vietnam by hook or by crook, Mai Thi Hiep was seven. Her mother despaired of the future of her Amer-Asian child and feared what her husband might do to the child if he were to return home. When she heard about Operation Babylift, she felt that she would be giving her daughter a chance for a better future. So, Mai Thi Hiep, along with about two thousand other children, was airlifted to the United States.
Mai Thi Hiep was renamed Heidi and adopted by a troubled, single, white woman in Tennessee who was physically and emotionally abusive to Heidi. She raised Heidi in Pulaski, Tennessee, home of the Klu Klux Klan, and a totally Americanized Heidi, knowing nothing of her cultural roots, became a true Southerner, right down to her soft butter-wouldn't-melt-in-your-mouth Southern drawl. Her adoptive mother ultimately disowned Heidi, when she was a teenager, and they remain estranged. Heidi had virtually no memory of her earlier life in Vietnam or her biological mother, and she grew up thinking that she had been simply abandoned by her.
Heidi, now a military wife and mother of two living in Rhode Island, decided that she wanted to find her birth mother, so she traveled to Vietnam in search of her. She found her mother in the poor village of Danang, and a reunion was organized. Unfortunately, the reality of her finding her mother and her half-brothers and half-sisters did not meet her expectations. Heidi's mother, who had felt great loss over sending her daughter into the unknown all those years ago and had despaired of ever seeing her again, was beside herself with happiness at finding her long lost daughter. Consequently, she wanted to spend a lot of time with Heidi and was very touchy-feely towards her daughter, who disdained the physical contact. A portrait of Heidi is slowly developing, and it is not flattering.
Moreover, her Vietnamese family wanted Heidi to help out with the care of their mother. In fact, her mother herself suggested that she go to the United States to live with Heidi. This is much more that Heidi had bargained for, but she reacted badly. In fact, Heidi reacted as if she were a third rate drama queen and is embarrassing to watch. Clearly, there was a conflict between her Vietnamese family's concept of filial love and respect and that of Heidi's. To her Vietnamese family, who are poor and undernourished, Heidi, who could definitely stand to lose quite a few pounds, was well nourished and looked prosperous. Heidi, on the other hand, thought that they wanted her just for what they thought she could offer them. While Heidi might not be wealthy by American standards, to the Vietnamese she looked as if she could be their ticket out of poverty. Clearly, there was a communication and cultural gap that could not be bridged by Heidi's brief visit.
In the film, Heidi Bub comes across as a thoroughly unlikable, self-absorbed woman, who is little interested in the culture from which she sprang. It is ironic that this Amer-Asian woman should have returned to the home of her birth and revealed herself to be nothing more than the proverbial "ugly American". Although Heidi herself is a mother, she seemed to have little understanding of the sacrifice her biological mother made over twenty years ago. Although she is a college graduate, Heidi also seemed to have little understanding of the dynamics that transpired between herself and her biological family, which is certainly an indictment of the education that she has received. She left Vietnam knowing as little about love, as when she first set foot back in that country. Her Vietnamese family should simply move on and put Heidi on the back burner of their memories. Having met Heidi, they must be aware that this little ice queen will have done just that with respect to them.
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