A Village Called Versailles

By Nam Giao Do

In this moving documentary, A Village Called Versailles, award-winning director Leo Chiang captures the resilient spirit of a small Vietnamese-American community in the easternmost region of New Orleans. He documents how they recovered and rebuilt their community after Hurricane Katrina. When threatened with the establishment of a storm debris landfill near their homes, the community visibly transforms from a formerly isolated Vietnamese refugee group into a politically active, empowered and united people that have found their voices.

In 1975, a group of Vietnamese refugees resettled in the New Orleans public housing project known as “Versailles Arms.” Most shared roots from the same three predominantly Catholic villages in North Vietnam and in 1954 had fled from North to South Vietnam to escape prosecution from the Communist government. The community expanded to 8000 members as fellow refugees joined their family and friends in Versailles, now the densest ethnically Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam.

Like others in New Orleans who experienced the devastation of hurricane Katrina, the residents of Versailles lost their cars, homes and jobs. While many Vietnamese Americans of New Orleans East evacuated and faced many hardships, more than half the community returned only six weeks after Katrina to recover the life they established more than thirty years ago in the United States. With the Catholic Church becoming the focal center providing supplies and food, the Versailles Vietnamese struggled together to redevelop their village. Young and old stood side by side to physically rebuild their homes and lives, visibly becoming a stronger community.

When New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered that a dumpsite be established less than two miles from Versailles, they came together in a resounding effort to meet this threat. Not only would thousands of trucks disturb the area and create an unsightly mountain range of trash and storm debris; this trash would soak through and contaminate the community’s water system, destroy plant life and endanger the health and livelihood of Versailles residents. Together with supporters from outside the community, they fought for the landfill’s removal. They vocalized and demonstrated their opposition - and triumphed.

Documenting the transformation and hard-won victory of this community, A Village Called Versailles radiates with hope. With powerful testimonies and heartrending imagery of the destruction caused by the flood, Chiang highlights many difficult aspects of the immigrant experience such as political inaction and a widening generation gap. As shown with this touching documentary, however, a community steeped in such experiences can emerge — politically empowered and united in the face of adversity.