Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides

Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides

7 Episodes

On the fiftieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, filmmaker and program curator Tony Bui presents a multiperspective look at the Vietnam War on film, moving beyond conventional narratives to include voices and viewpoints often overlooked in mainstream cinema. While the most famous Vietnam War films—like the cultural touchstones PLATOON and FULL METAL JACKET—focus on the experience of American soldiers, this selection paints a broader, more complex picture, exploring Vietnamese perspectives, the war’s impact on civilians, and postwar reckoning. Encompassing powerfully human Vietnamese dramas like THE LITTLE GIRL OF HANOI and WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES, wrenching documentaries like REGRET TO INFORM and HEARTS AND MINDS, and Bui’s own poetic reflection on Vietnam past and present, THREE SEASONS, these stories of loss, resilience, trauma, and reconciliation offer new ways of understanding a conflict that shattered and shaped countless lives.

Presented in cooperation with the Viet Nam Film Institute. Special thanks to the Permanent Mission of Viet Nam to the United Nations in New York.

Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides
  • Regret to Inform

    Episode 1

    Directed by Barbara Sonneborn • 1998 • United States

    In this powerful and poetic documentary, the legacy of the Vietnam War is explored from a perspective rarely acknowledged: that of the survivors whose lives continue to be impacted by the loss of their loved ones. Twenty years after her husban...

  • When the Tenth Month Comes

    Episode 2

    Directed by Đặng Nhật Minh • 1984 • Vietnam
    Starring Lê Vân, Nguyen Hữu Mười, Nguyễn Minh Vương

    Widely regarded as one of the greatest Vietnamese films ever made, this deeply moving exploration of grief and trauma centers on Duyên (Lê Vân), a young woman whose husband is killed in Vietnam’s post...

  • Journey from the Fall

    Episode 3

    Directed by Ham Tran • 2006 • United States
    Starring Kiều Chinh, Long Nguyen, Diem Lien

    Inspired by the true stories of Vietnamese refugees who fled their land after the fall of Saigon—and those who were forced to stay behind—JOURNEY FROM THE FALL follows one family’s struggle for freedom. April...

  • The Little Girl of Hanoi

    Episode 4

    Directed by Hải Ninh • 1974 • North Vietnam
    Starring Lan Hương, Trà Giang, Thế Anh

    Haunting and indelible, this landmark of Vietnamese cinema depicts the horrors of the Vietnam War from the point of view of a young girl (Lan Hương) as she searches for her family amid the rubble-strewn streets of...

  • On the Same River

    Episode 5

    Directed by Nguyễn Hồng Nghi and Phạm Kỳ Nam • 1959 • North Vietnam
    Starring Phi Nga, Mạnh Linh, Song Kim

    The first feature shot in North Vietnam is a stirring, strongly anticolonialist tale of two lovers, Vận (Mạnh Linh) a guerrilla fighter for the North, and Hoài (Phi Nga), a young woman from ...

  • Ms. Tư Hậu

    Episode 6

    Directed by Phạm Kỳ Nam • 1963 • North Vietnam
    Starring Trà Giang • Trần Phương • Minh Tri

    Acclaimed as one of the most important films in Vietnamese cinema history, this galvanizing ode to the courage of the Vietnamese women who fought against French imperialism features a stunning performance ...

  • Hearts and Minds

    Episode 7

    Directed by Peter Davis • 1974 • United States

    A startling and courageous film, Peter Davis’s landmark 1974 documentary HEARTS AND MINDS unflinchingly confronted the United States’ involvement in Vietnam at the height of the controversy that surrounded it. Using a wealth of sources—from intervie...