I’ll be blogging about my first experience as a producer for a film called SAIGON ELECTRIC, a hip hop, coming-of-age film made in Vietnam. It was released in Vietnam in April and is set to be released in select U.S. cities on October 7th. We’re currently mounting an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for a small, but proper, theatrical release.  So without further adieu, here’s Part I of the SAIGON ELECTRIC Journey:

My first foray into producing has been the most fun and the most excruciatingly stressful time of my life. Like many young Vietnamese Americans working in the entertainment industry, I too, caught the wave to make movies in a booming economy in Vietnam. Forget images of PLATOON, APOCALYPSE NOW, HEAVEN AND EARTH or anything from Oliver Stone’s oeuvre of white guilt — This ain’t your daddy’s Vietnam. Like the rest of Asia, Vietnam is catching up with the rest of the world, with booming industries, a rising middle class, major construction in Saigon and Hanoi, and half of the 89 million national population under the age of 30. With the Internet explosion, western trends are quickly being adopted and changing the youth landscape in Vietnam everyday; K-pop, Japanese anime,  iPhone apps, LA streetwear, and Madison Ave. branding are the amino acids in the new DNA of the modern Vietnamese teen.

According to PriceWaterHouseCoopers, the Vietnamese entertainment sector is growing every year at a rate of 7.1%! Now, I am not an economics guy, but that sounds pretty darn impressive to me. So, with very little opportunities in Hollywood for Asian Americans, there has been a constant stream of overseas Vietnamese, or Viet Kieu, who are going back to Vietnam to make their mark in film/tv/music/internet. The film that really broke open the flood gates was Director Charlie Nguyen’s THE REBEL, starring martial arts star Johnny Nguyen, who also is Charlie’s brother, and 21 JUMP STREET’S Dustin Nguyen. Released in 2007, it was Vietnam’s first martial arts movie. With the film industry now primarily privatized, contemporary films are no longer propaganda or about  ”The War.” Martial arts, romantic comedies, suspense, you name it, these were new genres in Vietnamese film. Even as of this writing, several horror films are being made, which is still taboo in Mainland China.

Today, movie theatres are being built at a rapid rate with about 150 screens operating across the country with more being built every year. With Korean multinational company CJ Entertainment buying a majority stake in Megastar Cinemas, the biggest theatre chain in Vietnam, and all the other major players exhibiting Hollywood fare day-and-date with the U.S., the appetite for popcorn escapism is more voracious than ever.

Stephane Gauger, a good friend, who I first met on the film festival circuit, definitely saw these emerging trends. Born in Saigon to an American father and Vietnamese mother, Stephane has been going back and forth to Vietnam for over 15 years, working on various film projects including THE REBEL and his own award winning debut feature, OWL AND THE SPARROW (It won the audience award at the LA FILM FEST and was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award), he saw the burgeoning hip hop culture growing at a rapid rate. Graffiti tagging was becoming prevalent, Vietnamese rap was emerging, and dance crews were being featured on national television. So, we all had the hair brained idea to produce Vietnam’s first hip hop dance movie! It also helped that AMERICA’S BEST DANCE CREW was aired on Vietnamese television, with amazing crews like Quest Crew, Jabowockees, and most recently, the Poreotics, as the top winners and with Vietnamese American dancers within these teams too!

Stephane pounded out a script in two months and delivered it to me and my other producing partner, Kenneth Nguyen, in November 2009. I read the script and at first read, it was not the dance film I had envisioned. For one thing, there was not much dance. Secondly, it was a quiet coming-of-age film about two young girls who try to find their place in the bustling streets of Saigon. The characters had depth and dealt with the usual problems that teens go through (young love, jealousy, purpose in life). Stephane allowed scenes to breathe and in some cases, there were moments of gravitas. Now, Stephane is that kind of person, who would rather focus on the human element. As for me, I was thinking more STEP UP or to go back to old school BREAKIN’, something with more flash and pop! To heck with the story, we’re targeting it towards young dweeb kids anyway! Alas, Steph held his ground and I eventually relented. Ultimately, I think Stephane was on the right track.

After a couple more polishes, we felt the script was in pretty good shape and we sent it to our friends at Chanh Phuong Films, who produced THE REBEL and another martial arts hit, CLASH. They liked the script and agreed to be our Vietnam partners. Stephane and Ken, meanwhile, kept in touch with some cool Viet Texans in Houston, who they met when they released Dustin Nguyen’s comedy hit FOOL FOR LOVE (Side note: Steph and Ken are part of a film distribution company called Wave Releasing to distribute new Viet films in Vietnamese communities across the U.S.).

These crazy, party loving, yet immensely friendly Texans, led by Michael Estes Dinh (who looks like a Japanese anime Morrissey, and at the time, we called him Thurston Howell III for his chic savoir fare), totally got our vision for the film, and soon came on board as the U.S. investors. So, in a relatively short time (5 months) we got most of the modest budget raised and we were ready to shoot in May 2010! It was truly a whirlwind of events. Our goal: To have the film in the can and ready to release by Christmas of that year. Let’s just say we were way over our heads with that target date.

First off, we had to deal with actually shooting in a foreign country. Although we’re all Vietnamese, we’re not from there and as American as apple pie (Well, a bowl of Pho with a side of apple pie). Secondly, even though we’ve been back and forth to Vietnam, there was still the obstacle of censor approval. Thirdly, how are we going to find actors who can dance? It was a long, hot and humid road ahead. I’ll blog about these issues in Part II….

But as you can see, we got the film made! Check out the trailer and see it in a theater near you on October 7th! For more info, visit the film’s official website.