“˜Journey’ to Los Angeles

You haven’t seen it yet, but this little indie hit has grossed over $300,000 after playing in only 10 locations and was the No. 1 movie in North America for two weeks running based on a profits-per-screen average.

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television alumnus Ham Tran’s “Journey from the Fall” has garnered accolades, critical acclaim and fiscal success at theaters from New York to Orange County, including being an Official Selection for the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. But, noticeably missing from the list is the entertainment capital of the world: Los Angeles.

“If you don’t have a big star, they think nobody is going to see it,” Tran said. “You have to convince the theater that there is an audience for your film. The Hollywood bottom line is, “˜Can we make money?’, and I respect that; it’s a business, but I want to show them a whole new group of consumers that they haven’t tapped into yet.”

Melnitz Movies will screen the film at the James Bridges Theater on Friday, along with a Q&A with Tran.

Financed by the Vietnamese-American community, “Journey from the Fall” is Tran’s first feature-length film, exploring the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

He collected the real-life experiences of prisoners in Vietnam’s re-education camps and refugees fleeing to America as boat people, creating a film that captures the stories of many of its viewers.

And, according to Tran, though Vietnamese moviegoers have not been a typically lucrative demographic, the community is mobilizing to support his film.

“The great thing about the Vietnamese audience is that they are very loyal, and if you offer them more of your product, they’ll support you,” Tran said. “We need to show that the Asian voice matters and that we are an important consumer identity.”

In an effort to expedite a Los Angeles release, the filmmakers targeted ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood ““ the same theater that housed Justin Lin’s sold-out premiere of “Better Luck Tomorrow” in 2003 ““ encouraging supporters to call the theater and ask to play “Journey from the Fall.”

So far, UCLA screening aside, there has been no tangible result.

“It is important for L.A. to have a chance to see this film and look into this experience,” said Carol Petersen, production photographer for the film and a UCLA faculty member.

“For the Vietnamese community, it’s a testimony to their spirit and courage in the face of suffering, but it’s also important to the global community because it puts on the screen a part of our history that has never been shown before.”

Even fourth-year psychobiology student Hoai Vuong, whose parents escaped to the United States after the Vietnam War, encountered this gap in historical consciousness.

“It was a rare occasion when (my parents) would mention what they had to go through in order for me to be here today,” Vuong said. “Over the course of my life, I’ve heard bits and pieces of their story, but I imagine that it’s really hard for them to talk about it.”

After watching the film, Vuong discovered that a scene that horrified him ““ pirates from Thailand attacking a boat full of Vietnamese refugees ““ accurately mirrored his mother’s own encounter with them. She shared with him how she avoided capture, an aspect of her journey to America that he had not known before.

“The film is sort of an icebreaker,” Vuong said. “This event isn’t easy to relive ““ not just for my parents but for other families with similar experiences, too.”

Tran recognized this silence between the generations: parents were not talking to their children about their ordeal and the children were not asking questions because textbooks told them everything they needed to know.

“Thirty years after it happened, you’re not going to sit around the breakfast table and start talking about these traumatic events and what you lived through,” Tran said.

“We’re initiating a dialogue that has been needed for the past 20 years. We’re giving people context to start a conversation about what happened there.”

However, Tran hopes to expand the audience, appealing to more than just the Vietnamese factions of Los Angeles.

“I don’t want this film to be about Vietnamese people exclusively,” Tran said. “Ultimately, it’s a humanistic take on immigrant life and what it was like for practically anyone who has come to America.”

The film’s ability to resonate with a wider audience and send a greater message elevates the significance of having “Journey from the Fall” screened in Los Angeles, according to Petersen.

“The importance of this film is really for society because it represents the disadvantaged and forgotten,” Petersen said. “The film industry is very rigid and it’s very hard to say what repeated efforts will make a difference, but this project should definitely be one of them.”

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