Like Mother, Like Daughter (2018)

Short Film — Director / Writer

Logline

On Lunars New Year, a Vietnamese American transgender woman goes behind her mother's back to wear her first áo dài (a traditional Vietnamese silk dress) in hopes of convincing her immigrant mother that she is capable of being her daughter.

Best Trans Shorts Audience Choice Award — Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBT Film Festival

Press: BBC News Vietnamese, Nguoi Viet

Official Selection

Boston Asian American Film Festival 2018
San Francisco Transgender Film Festival 2018
Viet Film Festival 2018
Out on Film, Atlanta’s LGBTQ Film Festival 2018
Queer Vietnamese Film Festival 2018
Outflix Film Festival 2018
Trans Stellar Film Festival 2018
Queer Bee LGBT Film Festival 2019
North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival 2019

Other Screenings

NQAPIA National Conference — San Francisco, 7/27/2018
Queer & Trans Asian Short Films at USC — Los Angeles, 3/31/2019
Short Films From the Viet Film Festival at UC Santa Barbara — Santa Barbara, 4/11/2019
Vietnamese Student Union VOICE Conference at UC Santa Barbara — Santa Barbara, 4/27/2019
Embracing the Love: LGBTQ Films from Southeast Asia at San Francisco Public Library — SF, 6/2/2019
Coming Home at Asian American Writers Workshop — NYC, 2/18/2020
Dublin Chinese Lunar New Year Festival 2021 — Online, 2/9-14/2021
Viet Film Festival Shorts “Under the Same Roof” — Online, 6/1-15/2021

Director’s Statement

At its core, “Like Mother, Like Daughter” is a coming of age story, a mother-daughter story, and a story about acceptance. Like my main character, Robyn, I am also a queer woman with a very complicated relationship with my immigrant mother. Though I am not transgender, I can relate to what it’s like to be marginalized. I wanted to portray an authentic story between a trans woman and her immigrant mother. My goal with this film was to empower the trans Vietnamese Americans in our community, whose stories are virtually invisible. “Like Mother Like Daughter” helps raise awareness while also humanizes the Vietnamese American and transgender experience.