Interview with S. Leo Chiang, Director of Mr. Cao Goes to Washington (2012)
Mr. Cao Goes to Washington is director Leo Chiang’s second film to deal with the Vietnamese American community’s political mobilization following Hurricane Katrina. Chiang’s A Village Called Versailles (2009) began with the fight to rebuild New Orleans East, and ended with optimism for a revitalized Vietnamese American community. One of the indirect results of that mobilization was the election of Joseph Cao, a local attorney and former Catholic seminary student, to the US House of Representatives. But seven years after Katrina, many of those visions—including finding new voice in the complex political terrains of the Catholic Church, New Orleans, and Louisiana—remain unrealized. In some ways, the rise and fall of Representative Cao reflect this story. (Click to read more about the film)
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Your most recent films – Mr. Cao Goes to Washington and A Village Called Versailles – touch on certain aspects of the Vietnamese American community of New Orleans. How did you come to know to know this community and how have you seen it change since 2005? | ∧ |
A friend who is a professor at Arizona State University told me about the New Orleans Vietnamese American community right after Katrina. I was not aware of any significant Viet American presence at all on the Gulf Coast, and was immediately intrigued by the unfolding story of the community in New Orleans East fighting to return and rebuild after the latest of a lifetime of displacements. I first visited New Orleans East in 2006, and have been back many more times since. Besides all the cosmetic improvements in the neighborhood, the community has become much more engaged with the rest of New Orleans, and the rest of New Orleans has become much more aware/deferential to the community. Many community leaders recall how isolated the neighborhood used to be. It's definitely not the case now. The BP Oil Spill in 2010 hit the community hard--many residents rely on the fishing industry to survive. But the community continues to show its famous resilience and are working through the hardship. |
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In Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, you focus extensively on Representative Cao's struggle, as a Republican member of the House of Representatives, to represent a district that is largely Democratic leaning and African American. Why did you choose to focus on this dimension, rather than the political mobilization of the Vietnamese American community after Hurricane Katrina that is often credited with helping to elect Joseph Cao to office? | ∧ |
For me, the political mobilization of the Viet American community was the central theme for A Village Called Versailles. As you may recall, Joseph Cao was shown getting sworn into the office in the epilogue of the Versailles. The community gained a lot of political capital after the Chef Menteur Landfill fight, which clearly helped Cao into the office. I was fascinated by Joseph Cao's story because of the unusual set of circumstances that surrounds his unlikely political rise. Mr. Cao Goes to Washington is, more than anything else, a fish-out-of-water character study and a commentary on the American political climate at large. |
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It is clear in your film that Louisiana politics are much more complicated than straight Republican or Democratic party platforms. What is the broader significance that you see of an Asian American congressman attempting to navigate the political and racial complexities of the South, and how does attending to politics in this region complicate our understanding of Asian American political agendas? | ∧ |
I think the Joseph Cao story is just an example/manifestation of the complexity that arose from the now much-discussed demographic shift in the US. The American South no longer fits the simplistic, conventional black vs. white paradigm. Asian Americans and Latinos are gaining, or have gained, prominence politically and are increasing complicating the picture. RE: complicating Asian American political agendas... it is interesting to point out that the two most prominent politicians of Asian descent in the South today, Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of S. Carolina, are both conservative Republicans. |
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Now that you are familiar with New Orleans through your work on two documentaries there, do you plan to continue with other film projects in this region? What is it about New Orleans and its communities that most interests you? | ∧ |
At this point, I don't have any upcoming project in New Orleans, but I am not ruling out making a third film in the Crescent City. It is just a unique and fascinating place - beautiful and full of fascinating characters. |
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Have you stayed in touch with Joseph Cao since his electoral defeat? What are his plans now and are there others in the Vietnamese American community who are inspired by his brief success to enter politics? | ∧ |
I have kept in touch with Joseph. I met up with him and his family just in October when we showed Mr. Cao Goes to Washington at the New Orleans Film Festival (where we won an audience award). He has gone back to practice law, working with many victims of the BP Oil Spill. He is in the process of getting his Ph.D. in Philosophy. He has traveled around the country to consult and motivate Viet American leaders aspiring to seek political office. |
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Your films have been praised for the embedded community perspective they seem to successfully gauge and engage. Do you have any tips on how to gain access and build community trust as a documentary filmmaker seeking to understand and fairly represent a particular event in a community? | ∧ |
I firmly believe that trust cannot be asked, it has to be earned. Gaining trust means investing time to get to know the people in the community. It means showing respect. It means to really listen to what the community has to say, to be thorough with your research, to understand the nuanced dynamics in any specific community, and not to come to the story with a set agenda. As director, I ultimately decide what ends up in the film and what will be left out, and I must take that responsibility seriously. |