Thien A. Pham. Bao Tran, and Ham Tran converse with hosts Viet Thanh Nguyen and Philip Nguyen.

ABOUT THE GUESTS

Thien A. Pham is a producer/director with accomplished experience in over 20 different languages and markets. While pursuing a film degree at Cal State University, Long Beach, Thien founded what is now known as 3388 Films, a media & film production and distribution company specialized in Asian and Southeast Asian content, with a mission to create with intention and connect diverse media & film content to global audiences. Thien actively seeks projects that highlight the rich layers of cultural identities in our global world and is a proud Vietnamese-American who thrives on forging new paths. Early in his career, Thien directed the first-ever Vietnamese-American singing competition TV series, sponsored by McDonald’s. Recent feature film projects include producing Actress Wanted, an award-winning thriller/horror genre film that explores the intergenerational diasporic identities, cultural memories and collective trauma of the Vietnamese-American community in Orange County, California.

Bao Tran was mentored early on by master action director Corey Yuen, where Bao was instilled with an approach to action that doesn’t rely solely on spectacle, but also draws on story and character. Screen Anarchy commended his written-and-directed short BOOKIE for its “flawlessly realized world populated by entirely fleshed out and believable characters, driven by a compelling narrative and brought to sumptuous life.” His editing credits include CHO LON, one of Southeast Asia’s highest-budgeted action blockbusters, and JACKPOT, a heartfelt comedy selected as Vietnam’s official entry to the 2016 Oscars for Best Foreign Film. Variety praised his first directorial feature THE PAPER TIGERS as an “irresistibly good-humored debut,” while the New York Times remarked his “lighthearted, refreshing approach neither succumbs to whitewashing nor the model-minority myth.” Rotten Tomatoes ranks it in each of their top categories for Best Action, Comedies, and Asian American Movies with a “Certified Fresh” rating. He also recently joined the ViacomCBS Directors Initiative.

Hàm Trần received his MFA in Directing from the UCLA School of Film and Television. His first two short films The Prescription and Pomegranate were finalists for the Student Academy Awards® in 2000 and 2001. Tran’s thesis film The Anniversary was Short-listed for the 2004 Academy Awards® for Best Live Action Short. In 2006 Tran premiered his first feature, Journey from the Fall, at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. This film went on to receive 16 international festival awards for Best Feature Film and was the first Vietnamese film released by Netflix. On October 4, 2019, Journey was listed by the LA Times as one of the Best 20 Asian American films in the last 20 years. On May 11, 2020, Tran was interviewed, along with Pulitzer Prize-Winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen, as part notable figures in the Vietnamese American community in the celebrated PBS documentary series, Asian Americans.

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