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EXCLUSIVE: L.A. Times Short Docs has acquired streaming rights to the Oscar-shortlisted documentary On Healing Land, Birds Perch days ahead of the start of nomination voting.
The film directed by Naja Phạm Lockwood offers an unprecedented and emotional examination of the legacy from one of the most renowned photographs from the Vietnam War – Eddie Adams’ Pulitzer Prize-winning image known as “Saigon Execution.” It depicts Gen. Nguyễn Ngọc Loan executing a Viet Cong prisoner on a Saigon street, two days after the launch of the 1968 Tet Offensive.
“Reproduced and debated for decades, this photo has become an icon of America’s most divisive war,” notes a release. “But that single, frozen frame cannot hold the full story.”
Remarkably, Phạm Lockwood interviewed the children of the two men in the photo — Gen. Loan’s daughter, and the son and daughter of Viet Cong Capt. Nguyễn Văn Lém, the man executed by Gen. Loan. Phạm Lockwood also spoke with Huan Nguyen, the sole survivor of a massacre of a South Vietnamese family in Saigon, a brutal attack allegedly orchestrated by Capt. Lém as the Tet Offensive unfolded.
On Healing Land, Birds Perch will debut February 2 for free on the Los Angeles Times YouTube channel and at latimes.com/shortdocs, as part of the L.A. Times Short Docs series. That series includes another Oscar-shortlisted documentary, Ondi Timoner’s All the Walls Came Down.
Watch a clip from On Healing Land, Birds Perch below.
“While the film centers on the Vietnam War, it serves as a poignant reminder that while conflicts change, the human experience of war and the difficult path to healing remain tragically similar,” the release states, “making its themes incredibly pertinent today with the ongoing struggles and humanitarian crises in places such as Ukraine, Myanmar, Sudan, and Venezuela. This documentary provides an important and vital perspective on war’s lasting impact and the universal quest for peace and understanding.”
Phạm Lockwood was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the U.S. in 1975 after the fall of Saigon. In a statement she said, “I am proud that our film has been selected to be part of L.A. Times Short Docs. This is the obvious platform and a great partner to provide public access and debut the film. Southern California, especially Orange County, has the largest Vietnamese American community outside of Vietnam. It is a key location for understanding the war’s aftermath and rebuilding lives, which resonates with the film’s themes of intergenerational trauma, memory, healing and reconciliation after fifty years. The film continues to act as a catalyst for difficult conversations between different generations about inherited trauma that was previously left unspoken on all sides of the Vietnam War. The documentary tells the remarkable stories behind that infamous photo, while acting as a portal into the ‘varied carols’ (to borrow from Walt Whitman) of trauma and the American journey.”
The documentary held its international premiere last July at the Doc Edge New Zealand Film Festival where it won the Best International Documentary Award. It has played at more than 20 festivals, earning numerous jury prizes and audience awards.
“On Healing Land, Birds Perch offers a rare and deeply human reexamination of a photograph that has long shaped how the world remembers the Vietnam War,” observed L.A. Times Executive Editor Terry Tang. “This film carries particular resonance here in Southern California, home to the largest Vietnamese community outside Vietnam. It’s a privilege to showcase this powerful story of war, trauma and survival in the 4th season of L.A. Times Short Docs.”
On Healing Land, Birds Perch is presented by L.A. Times Studios and directed by Naja Phạm Lockwood, produced by Julian Cautherley, shot by Carmen Delaney, edited by Wesley Lipman, with music by Dylan Trần. Executive producers are Geralyn White Dreyfous, Don Young, Judy Korin, Lan Cao, Scott Anderson, Jim and Susan Swartz, and Larry H. Miller and Gail Miller Family Foundation. Executive producers for L.A. Times Studios include Terry Tang, Anna Magzanyan, and Jason Spingarn-Koff.
The clip below explores the significance of the Tet holiday in Vietnam and includes the memories of the son of Capt. Lém, the daughter of Gen. Loan (the man who executed Lém), and Huan Nguyen, the survivor of the massacre who later immigrated to the United States and became an admiral in the U.S. navy.
English (US) ·