VietNamNet Bridge – Unlike other young directors, John Trinh chose his first film with a sensitive and controversial topic: "Agent Orange: 30 years later".

While other young directors often chose social plots or gooey stories in order to attract the audience to the film; John Trinh, called Trinh Long Hoang, chose a sensitive topic which has even caused controversy with his first film’s title "Agent Orange: 30 years later".

John Trinh is 53 years old and he grew up in Vietnam during the war; he later went to live in the U.S. in 1987. He did not know about Agent Orange until 2005, when he accidentally read the news about the U.S. government rejecting the claim of the Vietnamese AO/Dioxin victims.

Seeing the images of the victims on the Internet, he was stunned. Since then John Trinh started to research this issue more deeply and he decided to make a film about the brutal and long-term impact of the war.

In spite of formal training in the fields of film, media, and photography but with a strong desire of contributing a voice to claiming justice for Vietnamese AO victims, John Trinh made a lively film to denounce the atrocity and the long-term obsessions of the war.

The main content of the film "Agent Orange: 30 years later" talks about the story of AO victims from the North to the South of Vietnam. The film is not too picky in technique and not rhetorical in words but it completely conquered the audience with the true stories told in a real, emotional, and even cruel way. The author conducted interviews with images selected from the archive to tell stories about the colossal effects of AO pains.

The film has so far been screened in at least 20 international film festivals including the United States, France, Italy, New Zealand, France, Qatar. Many audiences have burst to tears when watching the movie.

John Trinh’s eager aspiration is for the U.S. government to admit its mistakes in the use of AO substance during the war in Vietnam and compensate all AO victims.

John Trinh said that he had sent the film to U.S. President Barack Obama, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, billionaire Bill Gates and many other celebrities in the U.S.

In addition, the film also helped the author win many international awards such as the best documentary award at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in 2009, peace award at the Un Film Per La Pace Film Festival, Medea, Italy in 2010 and an award at the 42nd Annual WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival.

With all his heart, John Trinh wants to make more and more contributions of the Vietnamese media on the AO issue during this claim.

"For me, the AO issue is not only a fight of the AO victims alone but it is also a fight for all the people of Vietnam," said he.

VietNamNet/VOV