Filmography

:: Vietnam: The Vu-Tang Clan
:: When I'm Hungry, I Eat. When I'm Tired, I Sleep.

Vietnam: The Vu-Tang Clan

Directed by: Xuan Vu
Starring: Tuan-Anh (Andrew) Vu
Approx. Runtime: 15 minutes / Color / © 2006

This independent narrative documentary film follows an 18-year-old Vietnamese-American boy, Tuan-Anh Vu, through his first visit to his motherland, Vietnam. Thoroughly Americanized and spoiled by his parents, Tuan-Anh struggles through the first few weeks of traveling, a trip that his uncles bribed him into.

The family spends their first week in Saigon, a crowded, noisy, and chaotic city. Tuan-Anh can't stand it and wants to go home. The second week they take a bus to Nha Trang, a beach town, and go on a boat tour. On one ride, a woman and her nephew beg Tuan-Anh for money. Then they make their way to Dalat, a mountainous region. The family goes biking and stops for a meal, where Tuan-Anh gets a taste of home: Pepsi Cola. The third week they go to Phu Quoc, a resort island, where Tuan-Anh spends his time pumping iron. By the time the family goes back to Saigon, Tuan-Anh feels comfortable enough to get his haircut in a seedy little barbershop and play a game of basketball with the locals. In the end, he admits to wanting to come back to visit again.

This film documents the change that occurs in Tuan-Anh as he learns to integrate his American culture into his experience of Vietnam.

When I'm Hungry, I Eat.
When I'm Tired, I Sleep.

Directed by: Xuan Vu & Josh Weinstein
Starring: Nicholas Doolittle and Tiffany Reed
Approx. Runtime: 23 minutes / Color / © 2006

This independent narrative documentary film is an ethnographic case study that focuses on the daily life of two residents of the Cambridge Zen Center in Cambridge, MA, which is a lay community of approximately 30 members who practice the Korean Zen tradition. The premise of the film: 'Is Zen easy or difficult?'

The film begins with a brief introduction into the history of the Center and the practice. Then the viewer meets the two residents, Nicholas Doolittle and Tiffany Reed, who engage in a variety of communal activities in the Center, such as cleaning and cooking meals. They also have their own personal lives: Nick is applying to graduate schools for social work and plans to move out of the Zen Center after being a two-year resident. Tiff just moved in six months ago and is currently a graduate student at the Harvard Divinity School. Nick keeps busy with his applications, guitar-playing, and hair-cutting, while Tiff keeps busy with her schoolwork and caring for her plants. It is not until halfway through the film that we find out that they need to balance all of these activities with their Zen practice, which involves waking up every morning at 5:15am for 108 bows, chanting and sitting meditation practice. So is Zen easy or difficult? Through
these two individuals, the viewer may find either both answers or neither.

Click here for more info on the subjects, on Zen, or on ethnographic documentay filmmaking

For more info on Joshua Z Weinstein, please visit: www.joshfilm.com