Documentary | DVD | Study Guide Available
Producers: Ahrin Mishan, Nick Rothenberg
Ethnicity: Vietnamese
Subjects: Culture Clash, Family, Men, New Immigrants and Refugees (Past & Present), Personal Stories, Sexuality, U.S. Colonialism
Life for most young Vietnamese youth in the United States is a “life like dust.” This film goes inside the mind of Ricky Phan, once a gang leader in Southern California and now serving an 11-year sentence for armed robbery. Shot over a three-year period before Ricky’s arrest, BUI DOI… explores his memories of childhood in war-weary Saigon, his days in the U.S. as a “gangster,” and then his life in a state prison. Which is more violent: fleeing from a war-ravaged nation or trying to survive in an alien Western culture?