NEW WAVE

The New Wave that exhilarated Vietnamese American teens in the 1980s, funnily enough, wasn’t actually what most people think of as New Wave. It was Eurodisco that Chinatown record stores had put in the same bin as the Depeche Mode and OMD albums. But to a generation born to Vietnamese refugee parents in California, neither the categorization, nor the sometimes nonsensical lyrics mattered. The new sounds of synthesizers and drum machines became symbols for their rebellious futures.

2021 CAAM Fellow Ai’s first feature New Wave (which won Special Jury Mention at the Tribeca Film Festival) follows her childhood. She was raised by her party-music-obsessed teenage aunts and uncles, while her absent parents struggled with financial insecurity. In addition to honoring her Aunt Myra, Ai interviews popular New Wave cover singers including Linda Trang Dai, known as the “Vietnamese Madonna,” and Ian “DJ BPM” Nguyen. It also delves into why and how these wild-haired Gen X-ers needed an escape from the trauma of the refugee experience.

The film’s producers include So Yun Um (Liquor Store Dreams), Diane Quon (Minding the Gap, Bad Axe) and Shang-Chi star Simu Liu.