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Two Daughters

More than thirty years after the War in Viet Nam, An - a Vietnamese Amerasian - goes on a search for her American biological father and finds a sister that she has never met.

  • Kieu-Anh Truong
    Director
  • Kieu-Anh Truong
    Writer
  • Priscilla Lee
    Producer
  • Kieu-Anh Truong
    Producer
  • Thuy Ho
    Key Cast
  • Richard Furnas
    Key Cast
  • Project Type:
    Short, Student
  • Runtime:
    11 minutes 41 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    May 3, 2014
  • Production Budget:
    2,800 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Viet Nam
  • Country of Filming:
    United States
  • Language:
    English, Vietnamese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.35:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    Yes
  • Park School of Communications Thesis Screening
    Ithaca, NY
    May 3, 2014
Director Biography - Kieu-Anh Truong

Kieu-Anh was born in Ha Noi and grew up in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam. She started her studies in film history and production in 2011 at Ithaca College. While in school, she made four short films including a documentary short in Seoul, South Korea. "Two Daughters" is her thesis film. Since graduation, she has been living and working in New York City. She was video intern and is currently freelancer at the International Rescue Committee. Kieu-Anh is also multimedia intern at Asia Society.

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Director Statement

Irène Jacob’s character in "The Double Life of Veronique" says: “I feel like I’m not alone in this world.” She might have implied a million different things, but for me, it beautifully sums up what cinema means to me. It is why I love the cinema and decided to continue on the path of filmmaking for the rest of my life. Film is the most effective and intimate medium to tell life's endless stories. Jean-Luc Godard called the cinema "truth twenty-four frames per second." There are things that can only be told in film - in the constant flickering of images.

I am passionate about telling stories of ordinary people and glorifying their daily struggles. I want to make films about people who may not loom “larger than life”, but through whom, we can look back into ourselves and learn poignant lessons about life. In that spirit, I wrote and directed The Dress – a short film about how a little girl’s wish to have a new dress to attend her friend’s birthday party causes turmoil in her struggling family. The film attempts to question: what does it mean to be a family?

People are similar, yet so different and it is my job as a filmmaker to find universality in differences and at the same time celebrate the diversity and complexity of life. My thesis film Two Daughters is about a Vietnamese Amerasian woman who is searching for her biological father some thirty years after the War in Viet Nam. The film touches upon the shared notion of searching for one’s identity, but specifically explores the little known stories of an abandoned generation of people.

Ozu Yasujiro, alongside with Mike Leigh and Wong Kar Wai are my biggest influences. All three directors, different as they may seem, have brought to the screen the most fascinating and complex characters. The three directors are also very location-specific. Ozu’s Tokyo, Wong’s Hong Kong and Leigh’s London are painted with such unique and personal impressions that they have become iconic. I want to make films about my country and city in such manners. I hope one day, Ho Chi Minh City – my own and dearest Ho Chi Minh City - will go down in to the history of cinema as one of the most memorable cities ever come alive on the silver screen.