One women's perilous and heroic life fleeing Vietnam across a treacherous sea.
This is the story of Xuan, just one of thousands of ‘Boat People’, who escaped the Communists in a rickety fishing boat, faced marauding pirates and suffered a near-fatal injury resulting in the loss of one arm. As an immigrant to Canada, she became a successful solopreneur and then fought relentlessly to bring her own family to safety. This is Xuan's Movie!
Congratulations to Xuan, Mary and Kieu on the successful showing of the life story family history film Just One: Xuan's Story. The two daughters along with family historian and filmmaker Cory Bretz uncover Xuan's remarkable story of resilience and determination. Filmed in her kitchen, Xuan chops and cooks her famous Vietnamese diaspora cuisine from her restaurant and tells her story.
WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER
The project started with research and interviews in Spring 2023, followed by about 10 months of assembly editing, finishing, and overlaying English captions. Of course, life got in the way but the family was thrilled to finally get the film on the Big Screen at The Rothstein Theatre.
Screening to almost a full house, the audience seemed mesmerized by Xuan's perilous story and her Zen-like one-armed cooking skills as she demonstrated on camera how to make ten of her famous mouth-watering Vietnamese cuisine dishes.
For families contemplating capturing their stories, images, and culture in a life story family history film or book, know that it isn't easy. It takes focus, determination, time, effort, investment and a powerful drive to inspire the next great grandbabies who aren't even born yet! AND...I'll be there all the way through to help you get it done.
Congrats to Xuan and her family for commissioning this inspiring film!