Behind the Scenes

Loading . . . Loading . . . Loading . . . Loading . . . Loading . . . Behind the Scenes By: Cathy Linh Che Date: Apr. 25, 2025 Illustrations: Nguyen Tran An artist’s parents were extras in Apocalypse Now. But in trying to recenter their experience in her own work, she wondered: whose story was it to tell? On the first day of filming, a small crew set up in my parents’ house in Long Beach, California. We were shooting a short documentary about my parents’ experiences as Vietnam War refugees who were used as background extras in Apocalypse Now nearly 50 years ago. Though my parents played a variety of characters — translators, Viet Cong, drivers, POWs — they had no face time and no speaking parts. Director Francis Ford Coppola sought to authenticate his film by hiring Vietnamese extras. My parents were cast as background characters in a story they lived. We hoped the documentary would shift perspective, foregrounding their stories instead. In the kitchen, I interviewed my mother. We’ ... Read full article.