American Experience

Critics Consensus

An emotionally wrenching portrayal of a family reunion that doesn't turn out as expected.

American Experience Photos

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Movie Info

As the United States began to withdraw from Vietnam, many Vietnamese women who'd borne children fathered by American servicemen feared for the safety of their offspring, as many Vietcong were extremely prejudiced against people of mixed racial heritage. In 1975, an organization called Operation Babylift was created to help mothers in Vietnam find adoptive parents for their children the United States, and Mai Thi Hiep, one such child, found herself relocated to Tennessee at the age of seven. Mai Thi Hiep was given the new name Heidi Bub, and encouraged by her new mother to turn her back on the life and culture she had left behind. Bub easily assimilated into American life, but by the time she had entered college, she had a severe falling out with her adopted mother and decided to renew contact with Mai Thi Kim, the mother she had left behind. Bub had hoped to find the love and acceptance that her adopted mother was unable to give her, but after traveling to Danang to visit Kim and her family,Bub discovered this would be neither simple or easy to arrange -- Bub soon discovered just how different she and her mother had grown to be, Kim's husband bluntly (though without malice) points out that Heidi was the product of his wife's infidelity while he was fighting in the war, and one of Bub's half-siblings asks what their relatively prosperous American relative intends to do to support the family financially. A provocative look at the unexpected consequences of both war and family, Daughter From Danang is a documentary that follows Heidi Bub's journey to Vietnam, and what she found there. Daughter From Danang was awarded the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Rating:

R (for pervasive language including sexual lyrics.)
Genre:

Documentary, Musical & Performing Arts, Special Interest
Directed By:

Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco
In Theaters:

Nov 5, 2004 wide
On Disc/Streaming:

Nov 11, 2003
Box Office:

$712,960
Runtime:

80 minutes
Studio:

Paramount Classics

Watch it now

iTunes

Cast

Heidi Bub
as Herself

Mai Thi Kim
as Herself

Tran Tuong Nhu
as Himself

Critic Reviews for American Experience

All Critics (76) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (60) | Rotten (16)

Stands as a powerful record of a truly historic event in the annals of rap.

Dec 10, 2004 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Ted Fry
Seattle Times
Top Critic
This doesn't stand with the great hip-hop documentaries.

Dec 3, 2004 | Rating: 3/5

Roger Moore
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic
I'm more familiar with Jersey than with Jay-Z, but I found it difficult to watch this concert (shot in 2003) without gaining some appreciation for the rapper's rapid-fire verbal acrobatics.

Dec 3, 2004 | Rating: B

Robert Denerstein
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic
A concert film that captures last year's Garden party along with well-orchestrated, if not especially revealing, behind-the-scenes footage.

Nov 12, 2004 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic
A spectacular concert documentary that also gives some fascinating insights into the making of 'The Black Album.'

Nov 5, 2004 | Full Review…

Richard Harrington
Washington Post
Top Critic
Against a vibrant, well-lit backdrop, he performs his biggest hits with an intensity and clarity that should allow even the uninitiated to appreciate the lyrical dexterity which makes him the genre's dean, the first rapper profiled on 60 Minutes.

Nov 5, 2004 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Ashante Infantry
Toronto Star
Top Critic
A moving and troubling documentary.

Oct 26, 2007 | Rating: 6/10 | Full Review…

Josh Ralske
All Movie Guide
[E]ntertaining, just a wee bit self indulgent, and highly emotional at times, Jay-Z's farewell performance [is] a sensational, if occasionally shallow, concert experience.

Aug 23, 2005 | Rating: 88/100 | Full Review…

Bill Gibron
DVD Verdict
A solid concert flick and a surface-deep peek at how the music gets made, but ultimately the final product feels like a well-polished piece of marketing machinery.

Apr 5, 2005 | Rating: 3.5/5 | Full Review…

Scott Weinberg
DVD Clinic
To those of us without any particular axe to grind, Fade is always at least an average music doc, and it occasionally ventures into the realm of 'good.'

Dec 2, 2004 | Rating: 3.5/5

Steve Schneider
Orlando Weekly
Unless you're a hardcore fan who's never seen the man in concert and really wants to by any means necessary, you'd be better off buying the soundtrack.

Nov 19, 2004 | Full Review…

Luke Y. Thompson
Los Angeles CityBeat
almost sleep inducing, with the star subject (who's about as chatty and revealing as Helen Keller) offering broad platitudes to his collaborators

Nov 11, 2004 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Pete Croatto
Filmcritic.com

View All Critic Reviews (76)

Audience Reviews for American Experience

Oct 02, 2012

An Amer-Asian woman travels to Vietnam to meet her long-lost mother. Aside from a few forays into a discussion of cultural and racial differences -- the Vietnamese family's request for money and the Tennessee family's racism -- there is no discernible difference between this documentary and an episode of Maury Povich. It has all the melodrama of daytime talk with very little of the thematic sophistication one might expect from film, especially a film that won at Sundance. Also, I found all the characters unlikable. Heidi lacked any characteristic aside from a plastic smile, and the family was all jubilation. And when the Vietnamese family "turned on" Heidi, I failed to sympathize with either party. Overall, Maury is the same but shorter, so watch it instead; just make sure you don't get a paternity episode instead of a reunion episode.

Jim H Super Reviewer