Documentary on Vietnamese AO victim screened in US

An area of dioxin-contaminated land in Da Nang Airport. (Source: AFP)

New York (VNA) – “Chau, Beyond The Lines”, a documentary film featuring the consequence of Orange/Dioxin in Vietnam was screened in New York on December 11, helping American nationals get insights into the pain of Vietnamese AO victims.

The 34-minute film directed by Courtney Marsh, tells about about Le Minh Chau, a 24-year-old Vietnamese man with disabilities caused by Agent Orange, who pursues his dream of becoming a painter.

Produced from 2007-2014, the documentary has been nominated for the Best Documentary Short Film at the Oscar 2016 along with nine other entries. It was also honoured at the 2015 Austin Film Festival and the US Film Festival in 2015.
According to Marsh, she planned to make a film on the AO topic from 2007 when she came to Vietnam for her practice tour of documentary making.

She said she met Chau in Hoa Binh Village in Ho Chi Minh City, which shelters children with disabilities as after- effects of the chemical sprayed by US troops during the war , and immediately after that she decided to do the film.

Marsh said her film is a global story, expressing her hope that the film will help promote support for Vietnamese AO victims.

After the screening, audiences signed in an open letter prepared by the Ford Foundation's Special Initiative on AO / Dioxin of the US, which will be addressed to the US Congress to call for the cleanup of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

About 80 million litres of toxic chemicals, mainly Agent Orange containing dioxin, were sprayed over the south of Vietnam during the war in Vietnam.

Nearly 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to dioxin and about three million suffer from resulting health problems until today.-VNA