The Empathizer - a documentary about Vietnam

Lots of fun last Friday with new friends & old: filmmaker and comedian @FredLe (@empathizerdoc ) and comedians @EmbarrassedbyNight at @Welcome.to.Chinatown ! It was such a pleasure to celebrate Fred's NYC debut screening of the Empathizer, an incredible project about Viet Kieu identity. We interviewed Fred on our blog, read more here: /post/fred-le-s-the-empathizer Congratulations Fred! Catch him on his spring tour, with upcoming stops in Omaha, Portland, Seattle, and more! #FredLe #TheEmpathizer #EmbarrassedbyNight #Comedy #AAPI #AAPIComedy #VietKieu #Vietnamese

The Canadian premier 🍁🎥 of @empathizerdoc happens 6pm THIS Sunday, May 10 in Toronto (at @cinecycle.cfmdc ) followed by Q&A and performances by ✨ King Kimbit @kingkimbit (Ottawa) ✨ Fred Le @fredle (LA) ✨ Andy Van @andyvanandyvan (LA) ✨ Jerry Tran @jrrytrn (Chicago) ✨ Farah Fancy @farah.fancy (Montreal) ✨ DK Phan @dkphantastic ✨ Hosted by Anto Chan @antopunfu 🎭🍁 Thanks to all-Vietnamese comedy show @embarrassedbynight and @inner.generation powerhouse Ontario artists collective for this gathering. A collaboration two months in the making!! Join us for an evening of Asian Excellence at the awesome indie theater CineCycle in Downtown Toronto! ✍️ Sunday MAY 10 starting at 6pm with a special screening of the award-winning Việt Kiều documentary, The Empathizer, followed by a showcase featuring comics from the film and special guests, hosted by comedian & poet Anto Chan and a couple of the finest AAPI performing artists in Ontario. 🎟️Tickets are available NOW at toronto.embarrassedbynight.com 🎟️ One ticket is valid for both the documentary screening and the variety show, and comes with a free beverage!! 🍻 What’s a better way to close out Mother’s Day on AAPI Heritage month than a film & performances honoring the motherland?! 🥰 🎞️ About the film : Shot in Saigon and Hanoi, The Empathizer is an award-winning hour-long documentary which explores the second-generation immigrant experience, identity, and experience through interviews with overseas-born Vietnamese who chose to move back to the land that their parents fled. Directed by Fred Le. Executive Produced by King Kimbit.

When @FredLe , a filmmaker and comedian, treated himself for his 30th birthday to a trip to Vietnam, he never imagined it would turn into @EmpathizerDoc : a feature length documentary spotlighting the often fraught and complex Việt Kiều identity (overseas-born Vietnamese). What originally began as a small, comedic project turned into a playful, postmodern documentary that focuses on the Việt Kiều who settled in Saigon — their journeys back to Vietnam and how immigration, war, and time have rippled through generations of their family and identity. We're thrilled to be partnering with Fred for a screening of The Empathizer at Welcome to Chinatown THIS FRIDAY May 8! Join us to watch this amazing documentary, a Q&A, and a comedy show @EmbarrassedbyNight with delicious cocktails from beverage sponsor @LadyTrieuGin ! Tickets here: /v24f8rat OR in our Linktree! #TheEmpathizer #EmpathizerDoc #VietKieu #Vietnamese #Vietnam #VietnameseAmerican #Saigon #AAPI #Representation #Documentary #NYCScreening #EmbarassedbyNight

We are absolutely bucked to make our New Orleans debut this Saturday, featuring a post-screening discussion with the wonderful and thoughtful Daniella Zalcman (@dzalcman ) to close out Gulf Coast Asian Arts&Culture's New Voices, New Visions : Vietnamese Cinema Week at Zeitgeist Theatre. 🍿🍿We have TWO screenings this weekend, but we have the pleasure of welcoming Daniella to quarterback our true debut on May 2nd, at 7pm! 🎙️Daniella Zalcman is a Vietnamese-American documentary photographer based in New Orleans. She is a journalism professor at Tulane University and the founder of Women Photograph, a nonprofit working to elevate the voices of women and nonbinary visual journalists. Fred and Bret will be in person to share their thoughts and experiences creating and showing this very unique work of the Vietnamese diaspora, which will be presented with both Vietnamese and English subtitles as usual!! Bring your elders, Let's talk! 🎭 Then stick around Sunday after the matinee showing of The Empathizer for a mad special Embarrassed by Night NOLA, featuring comedians from the film in-person and local favorites!! 🔥🎟️ Tickets for the screenings are at zeitgeistnola.org, and for the show are at NOLA.EMBARRASSEDBYNIGHT.COM 🎟️🔥

🗽We are honored to welcome Vinh Phu Pham (@vinhcesar ) to moderate the Q&A at our upcoming NYC debut at Welcome to Chinatown! ✍️Vinh Phu Pham, PhD, is an artist, literary scholar, and cultural critic whose work explores Vietnamese contemporary art, the musical legacies of the Republic of Vietnam, and Asian American literature in diaspora. His writing has appeared in The Journal of Vietnamese Studies(JVS), the edited volume Republican Vietnam, 1963–1975: War, Society, Diaspora, Rising Asia Journal, BBC Vietnam, Hyperallergic, Of Peninsulas and Archipelagos, and the Diasporic Vietnamese Artist Network(DVAN). He is currently Assistant Professor of World Literature at Bard Early College(Queens), in New York City. Vinh will lead the post-screening talkback with The Empathizer director Fred Le, which will be followed by the all-Vietnamese comedy show Embarrassed by Night (@embarrassedbynight ) ! One ticket gets you access to 🎞️ the screening, 🎙️Q&A, 🎭 the comedy show, and delicious cocktails from beverage sponsor 🍸Lady Trieu Gin (@ladytrieugin ) !! 🧧 Get your tickets at 👉Empathizerdoc.com/watch or 👉Embarrassedbynight.com . This show WILL sell out!!

THANK YOU to @redboatfishsauce , a proud Việt Kiều company and huge supporter of the culture for sponsoring our upcoming series of screenings in ⚜️New Orleans, 🏸Kansas City, 🗽New York, and 🍁Toronto. Each screening will feature Vietnamese + English subtitles! We're also gonna be bringing out tour-exclusive Thằng Hiểu Chuyện merchandise at every stop. I just explained the Vietnamese title to my mom, who thought we called it that because I'm bad at the language and had no help. We will see y'all soon. Get your tickets at 🎟️ empathizerdoc.com/watch 🎟️

🏸 KANSAS CITY!! We return to Bret's hometown to screen at the famous Durwood Vault Theater, a converted bank vault at the lower floor of the KC Central Public Library. We're so excited that we decided to show the film twice: ☝️3pm + ✌️5:30pm on ✍️Wednesday May 6!! Both screenings will be FREE to attend with RSVP, so head to 🔗 empathizerdoc.com/watch to save your spot!! 📣As always, the film will be accompanied by Vietnamese and English subtitles, and both Director+Producer Fred Le (@fredle ) and Co-director+Cinematographer Bret Hamilton (@cinemarxismbret ) will be present for post-film discussions, with the latter screening's talkback taking place at a TBA location in Downtown Kansas City. Can't wait to share the film with you!! 🙌 This screening is sponsored by KC-based nonprofit Hella Good Deeds (@hellagooddeeds ).

📣 TORONTO!! 🍁 We're absolutely chuffed to bring our grassroots tour to your beautiful city to screen at the awesome indie theater @cinecycle.toronto for the Canadian premiere of The Empathizer!! ✍️ Save the date : SUNDAY MAY 10th starting at 6PM What better of a way to celebrate Mother's Day than an evening exploring the allure of the Motherland! 🎞️ The Empathizer is an hour-long award-winning documentary which examines second-generation experience and identity through candid interviews with overseas-born Vietnamese immigrants from all over the world, who made the choice to move back to the land their parents fled. The film will be presented with Vietnamese + English subtitles, and will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker Fred Le. 🎤 The screening will be followed by a very special live Embarrassed by Night (@embarrassedbynight ) x Inner Generational (@inner.generation ) collaborative showcase of comedy, poetry, and dance. Lineup announcement coming soon! Tickets are on sale NOW at 🎟️TORONTO.EMBARRASSEDBYNIGHT.COM🎟️! Save the date and follow us @empathizerdoc for more announcements. Happy AAPI Heritage Month, and Happy Mother's Day 🤗

🍎📢 We're beyond excited to screen the award-winning Việt Kiều documentary The Empathizer on ✍️MAY 8th in New York City!! Welcome to Chinatown hosts the NYC debut of @empathizerdoc on a Friday night, followed by an @embarrassedbynight standup showcase featuring comics from the film and some local heavy-hitters!! 🎞️ The Empathizer is an hour-long documentary exploring the second-generation immigrant experience, identity, and inheritance through candid conversations with overseas-born Vietnamese who chose to move back to the country their parents fled. This screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker Fred Le (@fredle ) moderated by Vinh Phu Pham, PhD (@vinhcesar ). 🎭 We'll continue the night of humor and healing with the all-Vietnamese comedy showcase Embarrassed by Night! Created in 2022 by Viet-Am comics Fred Le and Andy Van (@andyvanandyvan ), EBN is a loving homage to the diasporic Vietnamese musical variety spectacle Paris by Night. The show has toured up and down California and featured at major festivals, and this marks its NYC debut!! 🎤 Featuring : Vic Tran @vicvantran Leo Nguyen @leonguyencomedy Molly Rae @mollolllllly Jerry Tran @jrrytrn Mic Nguyen @nicepantsbro Viet Nguyen @vietspeekenglizh hosted by Fred Le & Andy Van 🧧 Tickets, lineup, and schedule for Friday May 8 can be found at EMBARRASSEDBYNIGHT.COM 🧧 Do not miss out on this unique celebration of culture, connection, and lots of chuckles. This show will sell out!! 🙌 Made possible with support from @serica.initiative @vietsalon.nyc @welcome.to.chinatown 🍸 Bar sponsored by @ladytrieugin 🫡 empathizerdoc.com

⚜️NOLA!! We're proudly partnering with the Gulf Coast Asian Arts Culture (@gcasianartsculture ) for the inaugural stop of our Spring Tour and our first-ever visit to Louisiana 🤗 to close out GCAAC's "New Voices, New Visions : Vietnamese Cinema Week" at @zeitgeist_nola !! 🍿 We're so stoked to screen our film with Vietnamese + English subtitles TWICE in your lovely city : ☝️Saturday May 2nd at 7PM + ✌️Sunday May 3rd at 2PM Both screenings will feature in-person Q&As with Director Fred Le (@fredle ) and Co-director+Cinematographer Bret Hamilton (@cinemarxismbret ) , with a special Jazzfest-adjacent @embarrassedbynight variety show on Sunday night at the St Claude's Arts Center next to the theater featuring comedians from the film and local acts!! Stay tuned for the lineup announcement very soon. 🎟️ Tickets to the screenings are LIVE at ZEITGEISTNOLA.ORG 🎟️

Chúc Mừng Năm Mới Sacramento!! Mere hours after a trio of lions barfed up some lucky lettuce to bless our host venue @chloe.caphe with good fortune in the year of the Fire Horse, y'all showed up to pack the house to view and thoughtfully reflect on our sassy little doco, through forums led by Vivien and Jason of @vitam.community . It was possibly our most diverse and engaged crowd yet, and we have so many awesome folks to thank for their kind contributions to this special community event 🙏🙏 Xin Cám Ơn!! ☕️Crystal, Charley, Chloe (person), Jenny and the rest of Chloe (shop) staff for all the setup, troubleshooting, and your generosity letting us use your awesome space. 🤓Jason and Vivien for expertly elevating our film with your kind analysis and guidance. 📸Phong @phongdtran for your ace photography 💥Stan @directmessage.studio and Tido Hoang of the Viet Community of Sacramento for event sponsorship 💪@sacstate.vsa friends for your hard work 🍜Mẹ's Kitchen @mes_kitchen_ for the delicious food Thank you letting us into your hearts and minds, Sac-town. Light the Beam.

Thank you to the @thetechinteractive for hosting a space during Community Day for the Vietnamese community to gather to view the @empathizerdoc directed by @fredle and to discuss important topics, moderated by impact producer @_quyenngo from @vitam.community , that impact the Vietnamese diaspora. Creative & Community Engagement Director @quynh.mai.nguyen of Art Builds Community was brought on last year to work with The Tech on hosting a number of focus groups to learn from the Viet-Am community on how the museum can encourage more of the Viet community to attend or return back to the The Tech through marketing and programming. This year we started incorporating that feedback and recommendations through pilot Viet & English bilingual tours and programming that include Viet-Am artists and creatives. This is just the start and we're looking forward to continuing this work. Please follow @thetechinteractive for more updates on what's to come. Thank you @thdliondance for the awesome performance by your troope to ring in the Lunar New Year / Tết!