Abstract:

This deeply moving portrait of the struggles of recent immigrants to create new lives for themselves in America may be the best depiction available on video of the difficult process of becoming American. The film explores over a period of six years the lives of several Vietnamese Amerasians (children of Vietnamese women and American servicemen) and their families who left Vietnam in 1992. Each of the families was sent to a refugee camp in the Philippines for six months of ESL and cultural orientation before being resettled in the United States. The film details their experiences in the camp, including many of the preparatory lessons such as how to go shopping and how to use a telephone. After they arrive in different regions of this country, the film follows their lives for five more years as they struggle to learn English, find jobs, pursue their educations, and, for one Amerasian, to be re-united with his American father. Between Worlds is an incisive and profound emotional experience that will reward viewing in any course on Asian Americans, immigration, or multiculturalism.