"This project is really important, really urgent, and it is an untold story about the Vietnamese boat people and intergenerational issues that the protagonist is facing.”
-Pam Fraser Soloman
THE WAR LESS TRAVELLED
DIRECTED BY LAUREN ANDERS BROWN
WITH TRAN DOAN
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER KARYN BENKENDORFER
30 MINUTES
If a war happens before you’re born and the toxic biological weapon Agent Orange is still in the pipes poisoning the water today, is the war really over? Offering a chance to revise the history surrounding America’s failed war in Vietnam, we follow one Vietnamese-American family as they open their homes and hearts for a chance to heal for the first time in decades. Including interviews with experts in the field of Asian-American health alongside eyewitness testimony from a war time photographer, this documentary focuses on addressing the history and the trauma to improve health outcomes, combat racism, and find forgiveness.
Tran Doan, the main contributor is a 32-year-old Vietnamese American woman born after the Vietnam War. Tran is a mental health researcher and doctoral candidate in the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Along with Tran and her family, we will explore the history of post-Vietnam War through interviews with Ron Haeberle, Dr Gilbert Gee and Dr Tung Nguyen.
The War Less Travelled has been selected as a finalist for two consecutive years in the The Whickers Radio & Audio Award 2020 and 2021.
The Whickers were established in 2015 to fund and recognise original and innovative documentary. They seek to use the generous legacy of their namesake, pioneering broadcaster Alan Whicker, to support emerging film and audio documentary-makers in the funding and production of director led programmes.
To acquire this documentary for your audio platform
Why I chose to abandon my strengths as a visual story teller and deep dive into the world of audio documentary
by Lauren Anders Brown on Medium
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the philosophical currency of sound?
My latest documentary The War Less Travelled has me away from my creature comfort of using camera to tell stories and relied on the very medium I usually put at the bottom of my skill set totem pole — audio recordings. [ READ MORE ]
