A poster of Ho Chi Minh nearly burned down Orange County. Welcome to Little Saigon.
Since the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese refugees have built the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam, in Orange County, California. In 1999, "Little Saigon" burst onto the national stage when a store owner displayed a poster of Ho Chi Minh, triggering protests by Vietnamese Americans struggling to reconcile their past demons with their present lives. Saigon, U.S.A. uses this moment to examine this community's changing identity and growing empowerment.
Direction
Patient, intimate access to a community usually sensationalized by outsiders.
Editing
Tight 57 minutes that knows not to overstay its welcome.
Director
Lindsey Jang
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Little Saigon remains the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, yet this 1999 incident rarely appears in mainstream Asian American curricula—buried because it complicates the 'model minority' narrative.
The directors, both non-Vietnamese, spent years building trust—unusual for the time, when most Vietnam documentaries were made by outsiders parachuting in for trauma porn.
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