In 2015, Oakland-based group Thao & The Get Down Stay Down was invited to perform in Vietnam by the Hanoi US Embassy, as part of a celebration commemorating the 20th anniversary of normalization of relations between the two countries. It was also bandleader Thao Nguyen’s first visit to her homeland. Accompanied by her mom, who had not been to Vietnam in 43 years since fleeing the war, this trip laid the groundwork for the band’s most recent, critically acclaimed album, Temple. Nobody Dies, a 2017 film directed by Todd Krolczyk, documents that trip. “A profound short documentary that lays bare the bittersweet joy of returning to a homeland tarnished by personal and political loss” per KQED, it was initially broadcast on PBS in partnership with the Center For Asian American Media.
