On Healing Land, Birds Perch

ON HEALING LAND, BIRDS PERCH is a short documentary that tells the remarkable stories behind one of the most iconic photos in history, while acting as a portal into the “varied carols,” to borrow from Walt Whitman, of trauma and the American journey. This is the first documentary, from a Vietnamese born filmmaker that explores the continuing aftershocks of the Vietnam War from the perspectives of both sides of the war: North Vietnamese and South Vietnamese including Vietnamese Americans alive today. The story is told through the iconic Pulitzer winning photo of General Loan shooting a Vietcong captain Nguyen Van Lem in the head on the second day of the 1968 Tet Offensive.