Christopher Radcliff

teaser 1 ___________________________________ zi (2026) produced and made by kogonada, chung an, christopher radcliff, benjamin loeb, haley lu richardson, michelle mao and jin ha

WE WERE THE SCENERY 🎞️🚁🇻🇳 ΟΤΑΝ ΤΟ «ΦΟΝΤΟ» ΓΙΝΕΤΑΙ Ο ΠΡΩΤΑΓΩΝΙΣΤΗΣ. WHEN THE "SCENERY" TAKES CENTER STAGE. Στο φετινό Διεθνές Διαγωνιστικό Πρόγραμμα Ντοκιμαντέρ, παρουσιάζουμε το συγκλονιστικό "WE WERE THE SCENERY". Η Hoa Thi Le και ο Hue Nguyen Che, αφού δραπέτευσαν από τον πόλεμο του Βιετνάμ το 1975, βρέθηκαν στις Φιλιππίνες να εργάζονται ως κομπάρσοι στα γυρίσματα του θρυλικού "APOCALYPSE NOW" του Francis Ford Coppola. Ο βραβευμένος Christopher Radcliff, σε συνεργασία με την ποιήτρια Cathy Linh Che, δημιουργεί ένα πολυεπίπεδο φιλμ που χρησιμοποιεί αρχεία VHS, Super 8 και προσωπικές μαρτυρίες για να μεταφέρει τους ανθρώπους από το περιθώριο του κάδρου στο προσκήνιο. Μια ταινία που προκαλεί την εικονογραφία του πολέμου και τιμήθηκε με το Βραβείο Καλύτερου Ντοκιμαντέρ στο Sundance. In this year's International Documentary Competition, we present the powerful "WE WERE THE SCENERY". In 1975, after fleeing the Vietnam War by boat, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che found themselves used as background extras in the filming of "APOCALYPSE NOW". Award-winning filmmaker Christopher Radcliff, collaborating with writer Cathy Linh Che, crafts a lyrical documentary that weaves together home archives, Super 8 footage, and the parents' sole VHS copy of the Coppola masterpiece. Winner of the Short Film Jury Award for Nonfiction at Sundance, this film reclaims the narrative from those erased by history, moving them from the background into the foreground. @christopherradcliff @cathylinhche @sundanceorg @travellingdistribution #PsarokokaloISFF #WeWereThe Scenery #ChristopherRadcliff #SundanceWinner #ApocalypseNow #VietnamWar #Documentary #ShortFilm #RefugeeStories #FilmArchive #Cinephile #VisualHistory 🚁🇻🇳🎞️

April 30th @ 7:00pm┃New York tickets: /event/zi/

Film screening and discussion: “We Were the Scenery” with director Christopher Radcliff. We Were the Scenery is a short documentary based on the experiences of writer Cathy Linh Che’s parents, two Vietnam War refugees who, while in a refugee camp in the Philippines, were utilized as background extras in Apocalypse Now. Shortlisted for the 98th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short Film, We Were the Scenery premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2025 where it won the Short Film Jury Prize for Nonfiction. 1:45 to 2:45 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Albany Film Festival at the University at Albany. Free and open to the public. #albanyfilmfestival @paul_grondahl @wewerethescenery_film @christopherradcliff @cathylinhche @ualbany

When poet and filmmaker Cathy Linh Che’s mother, Hoa Thị Lê Chế, described her experience as a background extra during the filming of “Apocalypse Now”, she put it simply: “we were the scenery.” What does it mean to be “scenery?” To exist inside of an image, giving shape to its fabric and yet remaining outside of its story, the central narrative? In their incredible short film, We Were the Scenery, Cathy and filmmaker Christopher Radcliff revisit the story of Cathy’s parents, who fled Vietnam in 1975 and later appeared as background extras during the filming of Apocalypse Now in the Philippines.  Last year, we sat with Cathy and Chris at a Malaysian café in Chinatown and spoke of how landscapes carry memory, how translation reshapes meaning, and how cinema might return to those who are often placed at the edge of the frame in Hollywood’s historical behemoth of commerce-centered film production.  We Were the Scenery returns to those margins and asks us to look again, as the filmmakers attempt to create what Cathy calls “a restorative archive” — a way of bringing forward the lives and voices that American and Western storytelling once left in the background.  Pick up a copy of Volume 02 and read the full interview. Link in bio to order.

Bill Douglas Award 1: Where we’re going we don’t need roads 🛣️ 🗓️ Thursday 19 March 2026, 13:30, GFT Cinema 3 🗓️ Saturday 21 March 2026, 18:00, Civic House Journeying out, returning home and retreading revolutionary paths: this year’s international competition opens on a call to adventure with a programme of films which, taken together, deconstruct and reimagine the road movie Our international prize is selected by jury and will be awarded to the film that best reflects the qualities found in the work of Bill Douglas: honesty, formal innovation and cinematic storytelling that places sound and image centre stage Audiences will have the opportunity to cast their votes for the International Audience Award winner Ticket link in bio 🎟️ Stills:  God is Shy, Dir. Jocelyn Charles On Dreams, the Surreal and the Liberation of Syria (and Homs), Dir. @julieyara.atz When The Blues Goes Marching In, Dir. @benykristia We Were the Scenery, Dir. @christopherradcliff Panic in Nowhere, Dir. Adrian Flury

When we first began talking about making a film that could tell Cathy's parents' story we truly had no expectations. We just knew it was a story worth telling. So when we travelled to Vietnam with little more than a ziplock bag of Super 8 film and a broken tripod, we had no way of knowing the resulting film would go on to premiere at Sundance, win the Short Film Jury Award for Nonfiction, travel the world, and eventually be shortlisted for the Academy Awards. As we close the circle on a year since our premiere and a wild awards-season run, we just want to express our gratitude to each person who has programmed, watched, or shared our film, to all of the amazing filmmakers we've been privileged to screen alongside, to Sundance, Criterion, Le Cinema Club, Vimeo Staff Picks, and Short of the Week for giving us such an incredible platform, and, of course, to the amazing team of individuals who gathered around this film and propelled us to go as far as we have. The great thing about creating a film is that it's never over. It exists within the continuum of the moving image now, in which new dimensions of seeing will continue to emerge and grow in complexity and beauty. Director & Editor @christopherradcliff Writer & Producer @cathylinhche Producer & Cinematographer @jessxsnow Assistant Editor / Post Supervisor @andrew.migliori Sound Design / Re-Recording Mixer @su.zhoou Additional Sound Design @mackiemallison Original Score @infuzemusic Sound Mixer @smellydurianface Color @stephopho @raremedium.tv Executive producers @sukim_nyc   @viet.thanh.nguyen.writer   @KellyMarieTran #LinLayProductions @akemilook @sevasti____ @dmklee Jungyoon Kim @andreas.nicholas    @uynairda_ @nthonytran @yamirayang & Linhao Zhang @erinowenskirby @travellingdistribution @parallaxfilms_sales @sundanceorg @criterioncollection @vimeostaffpicks @shortoftheweek @lecinemaclub PR: @dmagpr @larsenandassoc with support from: @rooftopfilms @scribevideocenter @canada.council @theshedny

Um, wow! Thank you to @hollywoodreporter for naming We Were the Scenery 🌿 as the #1 projected nominee for the Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short!

We are stunned that We Were the Scenery was among Letterboxd's Top Ten Most Highly Rated Short Films of 2025! It's truly an honor. Thanks to everyone who has watched and rated our film ❤️

Many thanks for the kind words on We Were the Scenery!: “Incredibly beautiful and funny” – John Ridley in conversation with Matt Carey (@deadline ’s Doc Talk podcast) “A reminder that the peripheries of a film frame may contain life stories that are richer than whatever may occupy the centre” – Jason Anderson (@talkingshorts )- Top 3 of 2025 “The artistry impresses me more with each watch” – @jasondhi (@shortoftheweek ) #Oscars #Shortlist #Oscars2026 #wewerethescenery_film FYC

We’re incredibly honored to be among the finalists for the 14th annual Social Impact Media Awards! Thank you so much @simastudios “The SIMA 2026 Finalists show us that impact isn’t about scale, it’s about the depth of storytelling. [...] At a moment when images no longer guarantee truth, these films embrace complexity and nuance, reaffirming cinema’s power to witness the world with integrity and care. We’re deeply honored to support these storytellers and their courageous, vital work.” Daniela Kon Lieberberg, Founder & CEO of SIMA. #SIMA2026 #SIMAfinalist #fyc #wewerethescenery_film #SIMAAwards

Thanks so much to @jasondhi @shortoftheweek for including We Were the Scenery 🌿 as part of their 2026 Oscars Short Films Voter's Guide! 💜 We're so honored by Jason’s write-up!: “I went deeper into what I admire about Radcliff’s film in our featured review, but what I feel to be misunderstood is that, unique hook aside, the film is not really a “takedown” of Coppola or Apocalypse Now. The subjects are prompted to and repeatedly demur. Instead, the film is something of a matryoshka that utilizes its hypnotic approach to probe and suggest themes that are too enormous to grasp. As you open up one level, another reveals itself underneath, and if there is no clarity or revelation, something recognizable and human begins to form in the complex accumulation."