Category: Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam

OPERATION BABYLIFT: THE LOST CHILDREN OF VIETNAM to Screen at 35th Anniversary Celebration of Operation Babylift

DALLAS, TX –The 35th anniversary celebration of Operation Babylift will be held from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 24 at the New Jersey Vietnam Era Educational Center in Holmdel, New Jersey. Dallas-based nonprofit organization ATG Against the Grain Productions will provide a community screening of its award-winning documentary Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam at 1 p.m. in the Testimony Theater. Filmmaker Tammy Nguyen Lee will join adoptee and associate producer Jared Rehberg in a Q&A following.

Operation Babylift is Tammy Nguyen Lee’s feature directorial debut and tells the story of how more than 2,500 orphans were airlifted out of Vietnam during the last days of the Vietnam War and their tumultuous journey growing up in America.  The documentary incorporates a historical and contemporary view of this little known and controversial part of American history in 1975, featuring compelling interviews from a cross-section of adoptees, their parents and volunteers, as well as archival and rare home video footage.

“This is a very special celebration that brings together so many who were affected by Operation Babylift,” said Tammy Nguyen Lee. “We are grateful to be a part of this event that remembers such an important part of our history.”

“The 35th anniversary of Operation Babylift is a special time for adoptees to reflect on their past and think about their unique journey from Vietnam to America,” said Jared Rehberg.

“I believe the April 24th program is a culmination of the Operation Babylift Diaspora, 35 years later. This is a program that will be informative, insightful, enjoyable and a once-in-a-lifetime assemblage of Vietnamese adoptees (VADs), OB participants, and Vietnam Veterans,” said Lana Noone, adoptee mother and moderator of the event. “I’m delighted we’ll screen Tammy’s film, and the speakers we’ve assembled will give voice to several perspectives on OB. It’s truly a “not-to-be-missed” event for all!” For more details about the event, visit www.njvvmf.org/35thanniversaryofbabylift.

ATG Against The Grain Productions, a Dallas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, promotes Asian-American cultural awareness through compelling media projects and raises funds for international orphanages. Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam has received the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnamese International Film Festival and the Documentary Audience Choice Award from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. For more information, visit www.AgainstTheGrainProductions.com or www.TheBabylift.com

Aloha! OPERATION BABYLIFT Screens at HIFF This Weekend!

Dallas non-profit ATG Against the Grain Productions proudly presents Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam at the  2010 Hawaii International Film Festival Spring Showcase!

The film makes its Big Island premiere, screening at 11:30 am on Sunday, April 18th at the Regal Dole Cannery, located at 735 Iwilei Road in Honolulu, HI. Don’t miss the documentary that won Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnamese International Film Festival and the Documentary Audience Choice Award from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival.

Ticket and screening information is available at the HIFF website.

OPERATION BABYLIFT Screens Twice in the Windy City

Non-profit ATG Against the Grain Productions proudly presents Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam twice in Chicago this April.

The film makes its city premiere at the 15th Annual FAAIM Chicago Asian American Showcase, screening at 3:15 pm on Sunday, April 11th at the Gene Siskel Film Center, located at 164 N. State Street in Downtown.

“Operation Babylift” was a $2 million U.S. initiative that airlifted over 2,500 Vietnamese orphans out of a war-torn country to protect them from the impending threat of the Communist Regime.  Even with the best intentions, these adoptees grew up facing a unique set of challenges in America, including prejudice overshadowed by a controversial war and cultural identity crisis. Nearly thirty five years later, this documentary takes a candid look at a significant, yet untold event as seen through the eyes of the volunteers, parents, and organizations directly involved, and features compelling and insightful interviews from a cross-section of adoptees and Babylift volunteers.

Film festival director, Tim Hugh, notes how this year’s festival features three films on adoption told from unique and different perspectives. Operation Babylift is a contemporary look at Babylift and its relevance to international adoption today through the eyes of the adoptees themselves.  “We’re pleased to be able to present Operation Babylift to the Chicagoland area, not just for the Vietnamese community, but also to help educate our other communities and people to the struggles, and the rich, complex stories the Vietnamese in America have,” said Hugh.

Ticket and screening information is available at http://www.faaim.org.

Operation Babylift has an encore showing the following weekend at 5:30 pm on Saturday,  April 17th, sponsored by the Loyola VASA and API Committees and co-sponsored by FCVN Chicago.  The free admission community screening takes place at Loyola’s Lake Shore campus in the Simpson Living-Learning Center , located at 6333 N. Winthrop Avenue.  Filmmaker Tammy Nguyen Lee and cast member/adoptee Jared Rehberg will be in attendance for the Q&A following the screening.

For more information on how to attend the Loyola University community screening, visit http://luc.edu/diversity/api_heritage_month.shtml

Tammy Nguyen Lee to Join Vietnamese Filmmakers at Cinema Symposium 5

Tammy Nguyen Lee, ATG Against The Grain Productions President and filmmaker,  joins several other Vietnamese filmmakers and creatives at the Cinema Symposium 5 panel discussion held from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m on Sunday, April 18, 2010 at UCLA. Tammy will stream in live from Dallas, TX to  share her perspective on producing her award-winning documentary, Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam. Read below for more info:

Cinema Symposium 5 Unites Filmmakers, from Established to Emerging, Local to Global

HIDDEN GENIUS’s Top Five Films To Be Screened at Cinema Symposium 5
Los Angeles, Calif. – UCLA’s Vietnamese Language and Culture (VNLC) and the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA) present the fifth biennial Cinema Symposium titled “Operation Greenlight: Breaking into the World of Vietnamese Cinema.” Cinema Symposium 5 will be held on Sunday, April 18, 2010 from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Dodd Hall 121 on the UCLA campus. Admission is free and open to the public. Doors open at 2:30 p.m.

The symposium will feature 11 distinguished guests. Our panel includes: Kieu Chinh (Actress/Producer, “Journey from the Fall,” “Sad Fish”, “Time”), Nghiem-Minh Nguyen-Vo (Director, “Buffalo Boy”, “Don’t Look Back”), Mark Tran (Director, “All About Dad”), Orchid Lam Quynh (Actress, “Sad Fish”), Minh Duc Nguyen (Director, “Touch”), Nadine Truong (Director, “Shadow Man”), Danny Do (Producer, “Just Kidding Films”). As a special feature, we will also be streaming “Live” from Saigon the production team from “De Mai Tinh” [Fool for Love], with Dustin Nguyen, Irene Trinh, and Charlie Nguyen. Also joining us “Live” from Dallas, Texas, is director Tammy Nguyen Lee of “Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam.”

The esteemed panelists will be discussing the “ins” and “outs” of Vietnamese filmmaking, producing, and distributing. They will offer advice and speak about their experiences in the making of films and short videos in both Vietnam and Vietnamese America. The panel discussion will be followed by a lively Q & A. Shortly thereafter, please join us for the screening of the “Hidden Genius” competition entries.

“Hidden Genius” is an exciting short film competition open to emerging filmmakers. After months of screening and deliberation, the selection committee nominated five short films for the Grand Jury Award, sponsored by the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA), and the Audience Award, sponsored by Coco Paris LLC. These films hail from four countries — the United States, Canada, Australia, and Vietnam — and, in spite of the specific qualifications of this competition, vary immensely in subject matter and aesthetics. Patrick Bergeron’s “Loop Loop” is an experimental panorama filmed from a train ride in Hanoi. Justin Quoc Dang’s “Dice” is a thrilling lesson on the ephemeral nature of glory. Minh Duc Hoang Tran’s “Closed…!” explores the mounting tension between an alienated wife and her oblivious husband. Hoa Vu’s “Water Me” is a tongue-in-cheek memoir of a vacation in Vietnam among friends. Last, Huy Vu’s “Thinking of You” is a lush vignette about a quirky flower shop girl and the elusive “object” of her desire. These films, deriving from the furthest corners from our base in southern California, demonstrate that Vietnamese is indeed a “globalized” nationality, hence the theme of this year’s Cinema Symposium 5 – “Operation Greenlight: Breaking into the World of Vietnamese Cinema.”

Cinema Symposium was created in 2002 by VAALA and VNLC and is held every other year at UCLA. The forum seeks to create connections between Vietnamese American professionals working in the film industry and students with an interest in film and Vietnamese culture. Cinema Symposium alternates yearly with the Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF), which is also biennial. It works to promote works that are by or about Vietnamese Americans. The event also highlights the achievements of professionals in front of and behind the camera. These artists’ accomplishments in this highly competitive industry continue to pave the way for other Vietnamese Americans and are inspirational to many in the community.

2:30 – 3:00 p.m. Meet and greet; refreshments served
3:00 – 3:10 p.m. Opening remarks
3:10 – 3:30 p.m. Showcase of trailers/clips
3:30 – 5:15 p.m. Panel discussion
5:15 – 5:30 p.m. LIVE streaming from Saigon with Để Mai Tính team
5:30 – 5:35 p.m. LIVE streaming from Dallas with Tammy Nguyen Lee
5:36 – 6:00 p.m. Screning of Hidden Genius’s five finalists
6:00 – 6:15 p.m. Break
6:15 – 7:00 p.m. Awards presentation

Moderated by Lee Ngo and Daniel Pham

FUNDED BY:
Funded by USA/BOD and Coco Paris LLC

For more info, visit:
www.vnlc.org
www.vaala.org
www.VietFilmFest.com

An Lac Orphans Reunite at Fort Benning

As the anniversary of Operation Babylift approaches, reunions are taking place across the country and the world. Adoptees from An Lac joined Betty Tisdale in Fort Benning, Georgia.  Board member and adoptee Jared Rehberg blogs about his experience:
It had been 15 years since the last An Lac Orphanage Reunion I attended. For many adoptees, this was their first reunion in 35 years.
The last time we were together was in Saigon, Vietnam in an orphanage called An Lac, “Happy Place.”  We gathered in Columbus, Georgia to say thank you to Betty Tisdale and honor her life work.  Adoptees flew in from around the country to meet the woman who cared for them and worked hard to help ensure them a better life in the U.S.
We loaded city buses donated by the city of Columbus to visit the grave site of An Lac’s founder, Madame Vu Ngai. Madame Vu Ngai travelled from north Vietnam finding orphans on the street and bringing them to Saigon. The story of An Lac’s creation and the journey Madame Ngai took to open An Lac was just the beginning of so many missing pieces of my past.
I know I will never know everything, but the small nuggets of history will remain close to my heart and mind for the rest of my life. Our group stopped by the Fort Benning airfield where our planes landed with crying babies and the hope for a better life and for many better health.
We got a short tour of the grade school that was once a nursery for sick and well babies from An Lac. I paused to remember all the volunteers that cared for me and the babies that never left the base.
The final stop was at the new Fort Bennning museum. Betty Tisdale was presented with words of praise, historic accounts and the official announcement of Betty Tisdale Day in Columbus, Georgia on March 27th. There was an emotional story shared by one of the army soldiers in 1975. He spoke about the time he spent in Vietnam playing with the children of foster homes and orphanages. When the U.S. left Vietnam, he recalls missing the time he shared with them. The news came in April of 1975 that many children were being sent to his base. He was so happy to be part of caring for the children of An Lac.

Betty was surprised by a representative from Johnson & Johnson who came to honor her life work. Many years ago, Betty would call Johnson & Johnson for diapers and supplies for the orphanage. She never stopped calling, the children were her priority. Johnson & Johnson came through and delivered her much needed supplies. Johnson & Johnson gave the adoptees a special copy of the company credo as a reminder of their commitment to every human being.
The evening closed with a banquet filled with delicious southern food, more stories and tons of pictures. I shared a special moment with Betty when I took to the stage to perform a song I wrote about my journey as an adoptee, “Waking Up American.”
I’m so glad I came down to honor someone so special and inspirational in my life. I always look forward to hearing from Betty and see the smile on her face when I call her mom #2.
As I left for the airport I was happy to know that I made a few new friends with whom I share a special piece of American history. Thanks to social media websites like Facebook, we will be sharing pictures and stories for many years to come.
To see news coverage of the Operation Babylift An Lac reunion, visit the Fox4News.com website!

OPERATION BABYLIFT to Screen at Vail Film Festival

Dallas, TX – Dallas based non-profit ATG Against the Grain Productions is honored to present Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam at its Colorado premiere during the 2010 Vail Film Festival (VFF) in Vail, Colorado. The compelling documentary that won the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnamese International Film Festival and the Documentary Audience Choice Award at the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, screens twice. The first screening is at 2:45 pm on Saturday, April 3rd at Vail Plaza 1. Several members of the cast, including adoptees Jane Hopkins and Lucas Young and FFAC nurse Mary Nelle Gage, will be in attendance for the Q&A following the screening.

The encore screening takes place at 12 pm on Sunday, April 4th.  Ticket and screening information are available at www.vailfilmfestival.org.

Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam tells the significant, yet untold story of the $2 million U.S. initiative that airlifted over 2,500 Vietnamese orphans out of a war-torn country. These adoptees grew up facing unique challenges in America, including prejudice overshadowed by a controversial war and cultural identity crisis. Featuring compelling and insightful interviews of the volunteers, parents and organizations directly involved, the documentary takes a contemporary look at Operation Babylift and its relevance to international adoption today.

Several interviewees featured in the film are Colorado residents and will be present at the screening. Adoptee Jane Hopkins said, “Being adopted has always been a peripheral part of my life; although, it is a part of my identity, I have never felt like it has defined me or prevented me from being the person I am today. . . My story is only one of many adoptees.  Operation Babylift provides us with a unique window into some of the lives and stories surrounding a war that had a tremendous impact on the US and Vietnam.”

Erin Sheppard, Vail Film Festival Documentary Programmer, said “Operation Babylift was the journey for identity that the adoptees went through–and continue to go through into adulthood… it is human nature to question who we are and where we come from, and this film comes at it from an under-heard group in the American population.  Festival attendees will be able to relate to the questions and searching that the subjects go through during the course of the film, regardless of their backgrounds and cultural histories.  This is an incredible story from the moment the group of Americans decided to move these children out of Vietnam and as it continues to unfold as each individual story branches out from their similar beginning.”

Producer/Director Tammy Nguyen Lee, a MFA graduate from UCLA’s Producers Program, added, “We’re so honored to have our Colorado premiere with the Vail Film Festival. To come full circle back to place where so many adoptees found their home and share this emotional and inspiring story is exciting and significant.”

Tammy Nguyen Lee is a first generation Vietnamese American who fled Saigon as a Boat Person more than 30 years ago. Lee founded ATG Against the Grain Productions, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, to promote Asian American cultural awareness through compelling media projects, while also raising funds for international orphanages. This is her feature documentary directorial debut. For more information please visit www.AgainstTheGrainProductions.com or www.TheBabylift.com.

OPERATION BABYLIFT Presented at Washington University School of Law

"Operation Babylift" panel at Washington University

DALLAS, TX – Dallas-based nonprofit organization ATG Against the Grain Productions had its first community outreach screening of its award-winning documentary Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam at the Washington University School of Law (WUSTL) in St. Louis, Missouri, which took place at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 15th in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom of Anheuser-Busch Hall. Filmmaker Tammy Nguyen Lee, along with four local St. Louis residents who were involved in Operation Babylift, attended the screening and participated in the engaging panel discussion after.

“Our first community outreach screening was a huge success. We are very grateful for the outpouring of support and emotion. To see the film touch such a broad spectrum of lives and connect people in this way makes all our hard work worthwhile and richly rewarding,” said Tammy Nguyen Lee.

Operation Babylift is Tammy Nguyen Lee’s feature directorial debut and tells the story of how more than 2,500 orphans were airlifted out of Vietnam during the last days of the Vietnam War and their tumultuous journey growing up in America.  The documentary incorporates a historical and contemporary view of this little known and controversial part of American history, featuring compelling interviews from a cross-section of adoptees, their parents and volunteers, as well as archival and rare home video footage.

“Operation Babylift inspires and provokes on many levels. An honest and nuanced examination of international adoption, it also is a poignant chronicle of how children, parents, and adults adjust over a lifetime in their understandings of parenting and home. Students at Washington University loved this film,” said Kent D. Syverud, J.D., WUSTL law school dean and the Ethan A.H. Shepley University Professor, who, as a law clerk, assisted the judge presiding over the class action lawsuit from the crash.

“Many had strong emotional reactions to the film, the panel discussion and the historical events presented.  Law students got a close look at the human face of inter-country adoption, the tragic circumstances often prompting such adoptions and the hope and promise they represent. Today, inter-country adoption continues to raise difficult questions, and the film’s nuanced approach deepened the students’ understanding of these issues,” said Susan Appleton, J.D., WUSTL’s Lemma Barkeloo and Phoebe Couzins Professor of Law, whose scholarship and teaching focuses on adoption and who served as moderator and organizer of the community event.

“Operation Babylift did more than leave me thinking: it left me caring. The documentary was educational and eye-opening, but, above all, it was moving. I didn’t know how bad things were in Vietnamese orphanages back then, and I can only imagine the hardships the surviving adoptees went through. I am thankful for the, at times, painfully emotional glimpse the film provided,” said Mei Qi, WUSTL law student and President of the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA).

To see pictures from the event, visit ATG’s Flickr site.

ATG Against The Grain Productions, a Dallas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, promotes Asian-American cultural awareness through compelling media projects and raises funds for international orphanages. Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam has received the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnamese International Film Festival and the Documentary Audience Choice Award from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. For more information, visit www.AgainstTheGrainProductions.com or www.TheBabylift.com

"Lost and found: Some adoptees prepare to return to Vietnam, but others have no desire"

The St. Louis Beacon features filmmaker Tammy Nguyen Lee and others a part of Operation Babylift in an article discussing life after the war, and what the future holds. Read the original article on the Beacon website.

Lost and found: Some adoptees prepare to return to Vietnam, but others have no desire

By Kristen Hare, Beacon staff

Posted 9:31 p.m. Sun., 03.14.10 – During the time between college and grad school, Tammy Nguyen Lee began volunteering with the Vietnamese community in Dallas. At the time, she helped with the production of a play commemorating the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. The play had something about Operation Babylift.

Nguyen Lee wanted to know more.

“I think why I was originally attracted to it was the fairy tale of what it seemed to be,” she says.

The adoption of thousands of orphans from Vietnam during Operation Babylift seemed like a story of humanitarians joining together to help people. And it was nice to find something so positive.

“It was, for me, this kind of bright spot that came out of the war,” says Nguyen Lee, who is Vietnamese.

She talked with Babylift adoptees over a period of several years, researched and found out more. And the story changed.

“Like every good story, there are layers and complications,” she says. “It wasn’t just one big happy ending.”

Nguyen Lee’s resulting film, “Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam,” isn’t a comprehensive history, but rather an opportunity for discussion, she says, and a chance for the adoptees to tell their own stories in their own voices.

Through her research, Nguyen Lee found that each adoptee did have his or her own story, but for many, there were commonalities. Growing up, many didn’t have an Asian support community. “So they grew up kind of thinking that they were white,” she says.

That changed when school started and they had to deal with racism. Around college, many began looking for their own identity.

“And I think that’s when a lot of them started thinking about what does it mean to be Vietnamese,” she says.

Around age 25, many began returning to Vietnam.

“It was like a line that had slowly been drawn into a circle.”

For some, that circle closed when they visited Vietnam and saw the orphanages where they’d been and walked where their birth mothers had walked, she says.

Sister Susan Carol McDonald has seen those moments, which happen on every trip she takes back with adoptees. For many, they’re seeing where they’re from for the first time, like the young man who met a nun who’d cared for him as a child and saw where his crib once sat.

“I think it’s very meaningful to them,” says McDonald, who worked as a nurse at New Haven Nursery from 1973 to 1975. She’s taken seven trips back to Vietnam since leaving.

And at month’s end, McDonald and a group of 11 will meet up with 40 others in Vietnam. Their visit will mark the 35th anniversary of Operation Babylift.

‘I FELT AT HOME’

Five years ago, Lyly Koenig left for Vietnam with Operation Homeward Bound on a World Airline jet, retracing the path back to Vietnam 30 years after leaving as a baby. The Babylift adoptee felt a connection with the country as the plane landed, and again and again during the trip. Once, on a motorbike tour of the city, she looked around and realized she was surrounded by other Vietnamese.

“I felt at home,” she says. “That’s when I felt at home over there.”

One night, she and the other adoptees went out and walked around and ate street food.

“It was comfortable,” she says.

Koenig, who grew up in Festus, didn’t know many minorities growing up. To her, it wasn’t a big deal.

“My parents raised me to be comfortable in who I am,” she says. And if someone made a negative comment, she just blew it off.

Koenig, who is planning a move to California to begin a career as a fashion designer, will join McDonald on the next trip back to Vietnam.

She’s excited to see more of the country. If the opportunity came up, she’d live there, Koenig says. She’d love to teach English or even work with orphans. On this trip back, she’ll see the orphanage where she lived. She hasn’t seen it before and is looking forward to that.

“And seeing where I started and hopefully trying to just learn a little more about my history,” she says.

‘I’D BE COMPLETELY LOST’

Last fall when “Operation Babylift” first played in St. Louis, Mindy Kelpe-Eubanks drove up from her home in Cape Girardeau to see it. For a month or so after, she woke in the middle of the night from bad dreams.

“It brought out some really strong feelings for me,” says Kelpe-Eubanks (right), who is a Babylift adoptee and survived the crash of the C5 Galaxy during the first flight out of Vietnam in April 1975.

Kelpe-Eubanks grew up in Cape Girardeau and has recently returned there with her husband and two children. Like many of the adoptees, she grew up feeling different. And kids in her small, private school reinforced that. For several years, other kids called her a nickname, which she loved. Finally, in the 7th grade, she asked one of them what “Immie Joe” meant.

“It means you’re an immigrant,” they told her. “I thought I was really very accepted, and when I found out what it meant, it crushed me.”

Kelpe-Eubanks watched her daughter, now 19, go through the same struggles. At some point during high school, kids put a green card in her daughter’s locker.

“I’ve had to deal with this my entire life,” she says. “Finding your place in the world is hard.”

Despite those struggles, though, Kelpe-Eubanks has no desire to return to Vietnam. For one, she doesn’t fly. At all.

Also, she knows who she is, she says, and that person’s home and family are all here.

“I don’t want to go over there searching for something that I won’t find,” she says.

Instead, she’s busy with her children, 19 and 5, her husband, and her newest challenge — law enforcement academy.

And while she likes hearing about other adoptees’ experiences in Vietnam, Kelpe-Eubanks says she knows nothing of the culture or language.

“I’d be completely lost,” she says.

‘THEY’RE STILL TRYING TO PUT TOGETHER PIECES’

In the process of making her film, Nguyen Lee found the story of Operation Babylift wasn’t a fairy tale with one happy ending, but a story that was still unfolding — and still needed to be told.

International and transracial adoption has changed, from the way adoptions are conducted to the way people think about what children need.

According to Holt International, international adoptions now can take between one year and three, and cost between $15,000 and $25,000.

At a Vietnamese culture camp Nguyen Lee visited in Colorado, there are now two generations, the Babylift group and a younger group. Their issues and needs are totally different.

But so are the times.

“They grew up in a time when Vietnam was an unpopular subject,” says Nguyen Lee, who is the president and founder of ATG Against the Grain Productions, a nonprofit that focuses on social issues and raises money for orphanages abroad. “The mere mention of it was cause for a lot of grief for people.”

That’s changed, but some things haven’t.

Thirty-five years ago, Sister Susan Carol McDonald knew that understanding where they came from would be challenging for many of the adoptees. Now, she watches them in that process.

“I feel very protective of them,” she says, “and realize that they’re going through a lot of emotions when they go. You know, they’re still trying to put together pieces of their early life and make some sense of what happened.”

McDonald leaves for Vietnam on March 31. After this trip, she knows she’ll return again.

Share the Love: Dinner and a Movie With Sara Pascale

Take a cue from Sara Pascale, an ATG supporter and wife to Seth Pascale (Editor of Operation Babylift), who hosted a fundraising community screening at her home and helped raise over $1200 to help the distribution efforts of our documentary!

Sara Pascale, a hostess with the mostest!

“Seth and I have been wanting to do this ever since last April when we saw the world premiere of Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam in LA. Everyone we talked with about the film wanted to see it.  We waited until after the Dallas premiere to have an event and invited everyone to the Dallas premiere. Those who were unable to attend were still hopeful they would have an opportunity to see the film.

In November, a friend of mine who is a chef called asking if we had any events coming up that needed catering. I mentioned the fact that we had been hoping to have a fundraiser and screening of the film, and he said he would love to donate his time and energy to make a formal dinner for the event. Still not having seen the film, he shared the details of what ATG is all about with the restaurants he works at and his co-workers, and suddenly we had four chefs willing to volunteer their time and talents as well as silent auction items and dinnerware donated by the restaurants.

We had a short Q&A after the film with Executive Producer George Lee and Co-editors Seth Pascale. Most people stayed until nearly 11pm discussing the film with each other. In all, we raised a little over $1200.

Overall, the evening was absolutely phenomenal! It was so fun to get all dressed up and the guests really enjoyed getting to know one another. The food was both beautifully presented and full of wonderful and unique flavors. The film had a very warm reception and touched everyone in a different way.

I’d like to thank Chef Jesse Houston and his crew, Coast Restuarant, Shagly Photography, the Holy Grail Pub, Nate’s Seafood and Steakhouse, Landon Winery, Coffee and Cream, and Edible Arrangements for their generous donations and support.”

You can view more photos of the event here!

Operation Babylift to be presented at SMU Leadership Conference

Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam to be presented at SMU Leadership Conference


DALLAS, TX –Dallas-based nonprofit organization ATG Against the Grain Productions will showcase excerpts from their award-winning documentary Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam as a part of a presentation for Southern Methodist University’s annual Asian American Leadership and Educational Conference (AALEC). Filmmaker Tammy Nguyen Lee, a SMU alum, will join LA-based cast member/adoptee DC Wolfe in a panel immediately following to discuss their experiences working on the project and in the film industry. The presentation and panel will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, February 19th at SMU’s Hughes-Trigg Student Center Theater.

Operation Babylift is Tammy Nguyen Lee’s feature directorial debut and tells the story of how more than 2,500 orphans were airlifted out of Vietnam during the last days of the Vietnam War and their tumultuous journey growing up in America.  The documentary incorporates a historical and contemporary view of this little known and controversial part of American history, featuring compelling interviews from a cross-section of adoptees, their parents and volunteers, as well as archival and rare home video footage. “The story of Operation Babylift relates to so many people on a number of levels and covers issues of identity to international adoption today. In a particularly relevant time, I’m honored to share it with young minds who can use it as a springboard for their own growth and learning,” said Tammy Nguyen Lee.

AALEC’s mission is to connect high school and college students with speakers and workshops that address cultural issues as well as leadership and career planning. “We think that the students would get a deeper understanding of the meaning of finding their identity and learn from Tammy and DC on how having confidence has helped them reached their goals,” said Yen Diep, AALEC Programming Director.

ATG Against The Grain Productions, a Dallas-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, promotes Asian-American cultural awareness through compelling media projects and raises funds for international orphanages. Operation Babylift: The Lost Children of Vietnam has received the Audience Choice Award for Best Feature Film at the Vietnamese International Film Festival and the Documentary Audience Choice Award from the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. For more information, visit www.AgainstTheGrainProductions.com or www.TheBabylift.com