An aspiring Vietnamese-American director, who has been catapulted to fame after his documentary shedding new light on a beloved American TV series opened the Tribeca Film Festival, believes he belongs somewhere between the two cultures.

Bao Nguyen, 31, has just returned to Viet Nam, his home country, after his debut long documentary – “Live from New York!” – was selected to open the Tribeca Film Festival, one of the U.S.’s largest annual independent events.

Vietnamese-American director Bao Nguyen (left)

The festival took place late last month.

Nguyen is the first-ever American director of Asian origin to earn the honor.

Born in the U.S. to Vietnamese parents, Nguyen graduated from New York University and went on to obtain a Master’s degree in documentary making at the School of Visual Arts in New York.

In 2008, during his university years, Nguyen was selected as part of a paid group of media workers in Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign.

He then decided it was high time he made his way back home, where his parents have been living for the past 15 years.

With a handful of short documentaries which claimed prizes at international film festivals and were screened on major American media channels, including HBO, the New York Times, and MTV under his sleeve,

Nguyen made his homebound trip in 2011, when he worked as photography director for “Saigon Yo!”

In 2013, he worked as a producer and cameraman for “Nuoc” (2030), an internationally acclaimed film by expat Vietnamese director Nguyen Vo Nghiem Minh.

He has recently finished a project, “Employed Identity,” featuring a series of shorts, along with five other expat Vietnamese showbiz insiders, including director Ham Tran, composer Duong Khac Linh, and actress Kathy Uyen.

The project is meant to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of the Viet Nam War.

(Source: Tuoitrenews)