Precious
Cargo
Moving
Documentary Follows A Group of Vietnamese Adoptees, Raised in
America, as They Go Back to Visit Their Birth Land 25 Years After
"Operation Babylift"
Film to Air on PBS Stations Nationwide in November, National
Adoption Month
ITVS presents Pham Quoc Thai and Janet Gardner's PRECIOUS CARGO, a
one-hour documentary that follows the bittersweet journey of a group
of Vietnamese young people, adopted by American families at the end
of the Vietnam War, who traveled back to their homeland in search of
their personal history. In the process, the film tells the
fascinating story of Operation Babylift, which brought 2,700
children to America, and introduces us to many of the pioneering
adoptive parents who began a movement that has grown to redefine the
American family by embracing these biracial, sometimes disabled
children as their own. PRECIOUS CARGO will air nationally on PBS
stations in November, in conjunction with National Adoption Month.
As Saigon fell in April of 1975, panic and confusion reigned.
Nowhere was this more true than in the many orphanages which were
filled with the youngest casualties of war - children who had lost
their parents; children of American fathers whose Vietnamese mothers
had placed them for adoption to increase their chances of survival;
and the malnourished, sick and disabled. In response to the crisis,
then President Gerald Ford allocated $2 million to airlift 2,000
orphans to the States.
As we see in PRECIOUS CARGO, the first flight out crashed soon after
take-off. Of the 330 adults and children on board, 154 perished in
the tragedy. The first flight that landed safely in the U.S. was met
by none other than President Ford himself, who carried a Vietnamese
baby off the plane in his arms. Several other planeloads of children
were airlifted out within a week and went on to their new homes,
with their new American families. PRECIOUS CARGO tells the story of
several of these children, now 20-something Americans, as they head
back on a reunion trip to Vietnam sponsored by Holt International
Children's Services, which ran one of the many Vietnamese
orphanages.
On their native soil, the adoptees journey to the orphanages they
came from, often meeting the nuns and nurses who cared for them.
Raised in relative affluence and comfort, they confront the
over-crowding and poverty, as well as the natural beauty and
mysticism of their homeland, and wrestle with complex feelings of
loss and gratitude, connection and detachment. We travel with them
to The War Remnants museum where their hosts politely but firmly
express their strongly anti-American, anti-Babylift sentiments.
Finally, we see the adoptees as they return home to Washington,
D.C., to a moving reunion ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial. With
their American parents, the adoptees talk about what they've
learned, experienced and come to know about themselves, their birth
country, and their beloved adoptive families.
As adoptee Liz Sowles says, "For me, the trip answered a lot of
questions in the sense of being at peace with what happened to me.
Just seeing that other people on the trip also had emotions and that
we were all in the same boat was a help. I'm very lucky where I
live, I have great people who love me and I love them dearly...I
think it's the best thing I've done so far."
As one adoptee's mother says, "These children needed homes,
they needed food, they needed medical care. That's what was
important. The political part of it was not important." Both
heart-breaking and joyous, PRECIOUS CARGO is a moving tribute to the
resilience and strength of the adoptees and their families.
About
the Adoptees Featured in PRECIOUS CARGO
TODD ADAMSON was known to the nuns at Sacred Heart Orphanage in
DaNang where he was left on the doorstep 30 years ago as Truong
Thang. His adoptive mother, Marilyn Adamson, knew that he was the
son of an American GI and a Vietnamese woman and that he had polio
and worms when they brought him home to Harleysville, PA.
LEE STEFIN, was born Le Thi Hiep in Saigon in 1967 to a Vietnamese
woman and an African-American GI. She lived with her mother until
the age of nine and was responsible for much of the care of her two
younger siblings. She was adopted into a family in La Habra,
California, and now lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she works as a
nurse. She returned to Vietnam with her husband, ARDIES and now
plans to introduce her estranged birth mother to her children.
JODI LEE WHITE started life as Ho Bich Ngoc in Vung Tau, Vietnam 29
years ago. She was adopted in Angleton, Texas but currently lives in
the "valley" of Los Angeles county where she dreams of a
career as a singer/songwriter. "Hold On," the final song
in the film, was written and performed by Jodi.
JENNIFER ARIAS was found on the doorstep at Queen of Peace Orphanage
in Saigon and named Phuong Hong Lan by the Catholic nuns there. She
and Todd Adamson felt an immediate attraction when they met on the
Motherland trip to Vietnam and plan to be married on November 3rd,
2001, in the city where she was adopted, Virginia Beach, VA.
SAUL TRAN CORNWALL was born Tran La, with a cleft palette and cleft
lip and was only five days old when his mother died. Unable to care
for him, his father brought him to Holt's orphanage. He was adopted
by Judy and Jack Cornwall of Portland, Oregon, and currently teaches
other Vietnamese adoptees about their heritage and counsels refugees
in Seattle.
ELIZABETH SOWLES, adopted in Portland, Oregon, was a tiny girl when
she left Vietnam as Nguyen Thanh Xuan 26 years ago. She cried during
her first trip back to Tu Du Maternity Hospital in Saigon where she
was left in October, 1974. Liz has written and spoken frequently
about her emotional trip back.
PATRICIA SNIDER, born Nguyen Thi Tram, was one of the many
Vietnamese children stricken with polio. She was adopted by a large
family in Mesa, Arizona, where she grew up. On the trip back to
Vietnam, she was reunited with JANICE ANNAL, a Scottish nurse who
cared for her at Holt's Center for Malnourished Infants in Da Nang
and immediately recognized her at the reunion.
ARYN LOCKHART survived the crash of the first Operation Babylift
flight and now lives in Albuquerque, NM. She sought out COL. REGINA
AUNE, medical director of the C5, who rescued many victims at the
crash site despite her own serious injuries. The two have become
fast friends and are seen revisiting the C5 cargo plane with the
pilot in PRECIOUS CARGO.
Others featured include:
JOHN WILLIAMS has vivid memories of his first year with Holt
International Children's Services in Saigon, including the
evacuation of orphanages and the first Air Force Babylift flight
which crashed in April 4, 1975. Now President of Holt, he speaks
knowledgeably about inter-country adoption and travels frequently to
Vietnam, Korea, India and Latin America from his headquarters in
Eugene, Oregon.
TRINH THI NGO, a.k.a. "Hanoi Hannah," broadcast to
American troops from Hanoi during the war. Now retired from radio
broadcasting and living in Ho Chi Minh City, she shares her sharp
observations and sometimes bitter memories in the film.
BETTY TISDALE, who raised money to support An Lac Orphanage in
Saigon, adopted five Vietnamese baby girls in the 1970's. She has
formed a new organization, HALO, and is still actively involved with
postwar Vietnam's children from her home in Seattle.
PHAM XUAN AN, a Time Magazine correspondent from 1965-75, was later
found to be a double agent. He lives quietly in retirement in Saigon
where he recalled life around the Continental Palace Hotel during
the war and the girls he "protected."
COL. DENNIS "BUD" TRAYNOR, pilot of the first Operation
Babylift flight, spent years in court going through detailed
accounts and the debris of the crash. Because of multiple lawsuits
against Lockheed and the U.S. government, he was only recently free
to speak about his experience. Now retired from the US Air Force, he
lives in Washington, D.C.
About
the Filmmakers
Producer/Director JANET GARDNER is an award-winning documentary
producer known for her work on Southeast Asia. Her most recent film
was Dancing Through Death: The Monkey, Magic & Madness of
Cambodia, a documentary on the devastating effect of Pol Pot's Khmer
Rouge reign on Cambodian dancers and their centuries-old tradition
of storytelling. Other films include the PBS documentary A World
Beneath the War, which showed the Vietnam War from the villagers'
point of view; Vietnam: Land of the Ascending Dragon, which provided
an overview of Vietnamese history and culture from post-war Vietnam
to the present; The United Nations: It's More Than You Think; and
two series on runaway children, Children of the Night and Starting
Over.
Ms. Gardner's interest in Southeast Asia began when she covered
post-war Vietnam for two New Jersey dailies and contributed to The
New York Times, The Boston Globe and The Nation. She is a veteran of
NBC's The Today Show, WNBC's NewsCenter 4, WRC's News4 Washington
and The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Producer PHAM QUOC THAI came to the U.S. in 1971 to attend the State
University of New York at Buffalo. He joined The Gardner Documentary
Group as an assistant producer in 1992 for the production of
Vietnam: Land of the Ascending Dragon. As an associate producer, he
collaborated with The Gardner Documentary Group on A World Beneath
the War, a PBS special about the secret tunnels of Vietnam. The
program won a Silver Apple at the National Educational Film &
Video Festival, was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Historical
Programming, and was broadcast worldwide by Discovery International.
