Thursday, June 9, 2016

Vietnamese dioxin victim to speak at UN during documentary screening

An Oscar-nominated documentary about a Vietnamese victim of Agent Orange will be screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York next week.
Director Courtney Marsh said in a Facebook post that “Chau, Beyond the Lines” would be shown on June 15, when she and the film’s protagonist, Le Minh Chau, 25, would also speak with the audience.
The 33-minute documentary shows the effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed by the US over Vietnam’s jungles during the war to deprive Vietnamese soldiers of cover, on Chau.
He suffers from a rare disability in his arms and legs caused by his mother drinking water from a dioxin-contaminated river before he was born.
He grew up in a peace camp until 17 and is now an artist in Ho Chi Minh City, living on his own.
The documentary, produced by Jerry Franck and Marsh and filmed over eight years, won the Best Documentary Short Film at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival in the US last November and was among the nominees for the latest Academy Awards.
The documentary had its first public screening in Vietnam on April 19 at the US Embassy in Hanoi and the American Center in Ho Chi Minh City.

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