VAALA smART Program

smART Program – school mentoring & Art Resources Team


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Filmmaker Ham Tran shows the HOPE’s participants how to capture the sound.


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Filmmaker Jenni Trang Le and HOPE’s participants prepare for the shot.

Download smART Application

Overview of the smART Program:

The smART Program was created by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) to provide FREE year-round, after-school art workshops for various organizations in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas serving under-privileged and “at-risk” youth from all backgrounds.  Youth participants’ ages will range from 6 to 18 years old (Kindergarten to 12th grade).  The objectives of the smART Program are to:

    • Enhance creativity and self-expression
    • Build confidence and self-esteem
    • Develop a sense of community-orientation
    • Familiarize youth to multiple art forms
    • Develop a sense of art appreciation
    • Expose youth to different interests/hobbies and career options
    • Create opportunities for artists to serve diverse communities

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Filmmaker Roland Nguyen reveals the secrets of how to write a good script.


Uyen Huynh & Jenni Trang Le

Uyen Huynh and Jenni Trang Le break the ice in the Performance Art workshop for OCAPICA’s participants (March 11, 2008)

 Description of the smART Program: 
  • The smART Program includes, but is not limited to, workshops in the following areas:  filmmaking, claymation, painting, animation, drawing, arts and crafts, photography (film and digital), T-shirt making,  poetry and spoken-word.   VAALA reserves the right to choose the youth organization that will be provided with the smART Program.
  • Youth organizations need to be non-profit, Los Angeles or Orange County-based organizations that serve children who are “at-risk” in term of having educational, economic, physical, or sociological disadvantages.  Participants’ ages range from 6 to 18.  The number of participants for each workshop is no less than 10 and no more than 30 participants.  The smART Program is offered for a one year maximum duration.  After one year, interested youth organizations need to re-apply for the program and consider ways in which they can continue collaborating with VAALA and other organizations to incorporate and sustain art education in their programs. 
  • Interested youth organizations need to complete an application and submit it to VAALA.  VAALA’s Board of Directors will review the application and choose the youth organization that will be provided with the smART Program. Once a youth organization is chosen, VAALA will invite participating artists to lead the workshop(s).  VAALA’s Board of Directors and the artist(s) will then meet with the leaders of the youth organization to design the workshop (s) to fit the needs of the youth organization.
  • The workshop may last from two to eight hours per session and may be carried out in one or multiple sessions.
 

Artists Participating in the smART Program (as of Jan. 1, 2008):


 Anhdao Le Do – Poet, Spoken-Word Artist, Magician
Anhdao Le Do is a bilingual and bicultural writer, performer and activist.  Do was born in the once beloved capital of Vietnam: gritty and exquisite Sai Gon. The complexity of her birthplace signifies her possession of a Vietnamese heart and diverse characteristics as an immigrant of generation 1.5. Her writings in Vietnamese and English show her love and inspiration for both languages and cultures. She graduated from UCLA and now lives in Las Vegas. She takes poetic refuge in Mai Piece, a spoken word and music collective.  Do currently dedicates her time to working as a women’s rights advocate for the Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence.  When Do is not driving, writing, hosting or advocating, she can be found working on Grift Sense, a two-person act about con-artistry and fraudulent mind-reading in which she performs with Apollo the Pickpocket.

Do Thanh Danh – Filmmaker
In 2003, Do Thanh Danh studied at Orange Coast College where he made his first 16 m.m. short, “All my Sole.” Being online, it won a lot of people’s attention, proclaiming it an instant cult-classic for the sub-culture of sneaker heads.   In 2006, he partnered up with Andy Vu to produce and direct the behind the scenes to the first action film in Vietnam history, “The Rebel” (directed by Charlie Nguyen).

After being in Vietnam for half a year, Do had a profound look on who he was as a Vietnamese American.  Do co-founded Paperplane Productions and produced, “Saigon Heat,” (2007, also directed by Do) a documentary on the progression of Vietnam in the last 30 years through dance, art and music. Currently, he is the Chief Editor for Saigon Television Communications as well as a feature documentary filmmaker for Van Son Productions. Do has worked with Charlie Nguyen, Stephane Gauger, Ham Tran and many others, intertwining himself around the heavy hitters of the Viet Film Wave. 

Brian Doan – Photographer 
Brian Doan was born in Vietnam and immigrated to the United States in 1991. Doan received his master’s degree in photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and his bachelor’s degree in photography from the University of Colorado at Denver. He is currently teaching photography at the Art Institute of California in Los Angeles.

Doan’s work has been exhibited internationally, including the Museum of Photography in Riverside, Calif., the International Center of Photography in New York, the Centro de la Imagen in Mexico City, Mexico, the Victoria & Albert Museums in London, the Amsterdam Tropenmuseum and the Milan Triennale.

He is the recipient of several grants and awards, including from the California Council for the Humanities and the Rockefeller Fellows in the Humanities.  His monograph “The Forgotten Ones” was published by VAALA in 2004.

Stephane Gauger – Filmmaker 
Born in Saigon and raised in Orange County, Calif., Stephane Gauger received a bachelor’s degree in theatre and French literature. His childhood love of cinema moved him away from the stage and onto film sets, training in film lighting under Matty Libatique, ASC. Gauger subsequently worked in the camera and lighting departments on independent films in the United States and Southeast Asia, including Sundance winner “Three Seasons,” all of the while honing his writing and directing craft on short narrative and documentary films. “Owl and the Sparrow” is his first feature. Gauger is now in preproduction on “Powder Blue,” a script he co-wrote to be directed by Timothy Linh Bui in Los Angeles.  “Powder Blue” is also about dislocation in the urban landscape.

Tina Huynh – Musician 
Tina Huynh has been teaching piano and flute privately since 1999.  Huynh currently plays with the Orange County Symphony and the Vietnamese American Philharmonic.  Huynh graduated cum laude from California State University, Long Beach with bachelor’s degrees in instrumental music and French. In addition, she also holds a Professional Clearance Credential in music and subject matter authorization to teach French.  She obtained Level 1 Kodaly methodology certification in 2002.  Huynh uses a combination of teaching methodologies, including Kodaly, Dalcroze, Gordon, Orff and her own creativity to teach children to become better people by learning and loving music.  Huynh currently teaches VAALA’s Children’s Arts & Music class.

Jenni Trang Le – Filmmaker, Spoken-Word Artist 
Jenni Trang Le graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from UCLA.  She began crafting stories in performing arts and cultural debauchery with Club O’ Noodles, a Vietnamese American theatre troupe, in 1999 that led to her involvement with the VAALA and the Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) in 2003 to present day.  

In 2003 Le worked on Ham Tran’s “Journey from the Fall” as the office coordinator.  After that, she has been involved in numerous film productions such as talent liaison and associate producer of “Holly”(2003, directed by Guy Moshe), a film about child prostitution in the gritty reality of Cambodia.  She has also held the role as first assistant director of “Finding Madison” (2005, directed by Tuan Tran), “Owl and the Sparrow” (2006, directed by Stephane Gauger) and, most recently, the action romance period film “The Rebel” (2006, directed by Charlie Nguyen).  In January 2007, Le received the Armed with a Camera Fellowship through Visual Communications where she wrote, directed and animated a 5-minute claymation entitled, “Oh Mommy!” (Me  Ơi!).  “Oh Mommy!” was her directorial debut and she is proud to flow within the creative waters of the new Viet Film Wave, weaving stories and interlacing visuals that touch the soul.

Viet Le – Visual Artist 
Viet Le is an artist, creative writer, photographer and curator.  He has received creative fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center (MA), Banff (Canada) and PEN USA.  He received his master’s degree from UC Irvine, where he has also taught, and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at the University of Southern California.  His art work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work has been featured in Asian Pacific American Journal, Corpus, Amerasia Journal, Flaunt, the anthologies “So Luminous the Wildflowers” and “Blue Arc,” among others.  His latest curatorial projects included “Miss Saigon with the Wind” (Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, Calif.) and “Charlie Don’t Surf: 4 Vietnamese American Artists” (Centre A, Vancouver, Canada), “humor us” (Los Angeles Municipal Gallery at Barnsdall Art Park, Calif.) and “TransPOP:  A Korea & Vietnam Remix” (Arko Art Center, Seoul, Korea & UC Irvine Art Gallery, Irvine, Calif.)

Charlie Nguyen – Filmmaker
Charlie Nguyen began his career producing and directing hundreds of music videos, sitcoms, short films, documentaries and live concerts in various cities worldwide.  He is well-known in the Vietnamese American entertainment industry for his work with Van Son Entertainment.  His notable documentaries include “The Old Lover/Ngư oi Tình Già” (2002) about musician Ph m Duy and well-received installments of a documentary series on different Asian nations

Nguyen and his own team of filmmakers also created Cinema Pictures from the ground up in 1992. Their first feature “Hung Vuong the 18th” (1994), written and directed by Nguyen, was independently funded and set the tone for exciting pictures that infused history, martial arts and drama. His film credits also include “Chances Are” (2002, director/writer), “Finding Madison” (2005, producer) and “The Rebel” (2007, director, co-writer, producer, editor). “The Rebel,” a martial arts epic, became box office hit when it was released in Vietnam in April 2007.   “The Rebel” also won the Best Audience Choice Award at the Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2007 and Grand Jury Prize at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival (VC Film Fest) 2007.

Nguyen is currently touring film festivals with “The Rebel,” distributed by The Weinstein Company, and is in development with the company on other potential film projects.

Hiep Nguyen – Visual Artist (creator of Circle Painting)
Hiep Nguyen is an interdisciplinary artist with a life long passion for teaching.  He was born in Vietnam and settled in the United States in 1991.  He received his bachelor’s degree and teaching credential in art education at California State University, Long Beach.  He has worked as a muralist, stage designer and art teacher.  Nguyen has organized and facilitated many art and performance programs for children and adults.  As a dedicated artist and teacher, Nguyen believes that creativity holds enormous power to impact change, and that we all must use our creative power. His motto is “All for Art, Art for All,” which is also the name of an interdisciplinary art and music class that he has developed.  Currently, Hiep is spreading his phenomenon Circle Painting Project around the country and overseas.

Roland Nguyen – Filmmaker
Roland Nguyen was the first Vietnamese baby born in North Dakota.  As a child, his biggest influences came from the original Star Wars films, as well as from Hong Kong martial arts television serials that were dubbed into Vietnamese.  Nguyen graduated from Bismarck High School in 1994 and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998.  He is currently an master’s of fine arts candidate at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.

Tuan Nguyen – Animation Artist
Tuan Nguyen was born in Viet Nam in 1979.  He came to the United States in 1989 and later received his education in animation from the California Institute of Arts.

Tuan K. Nguyen – Designer, Animator, Producer, Director
Tuan Kien Nguyen is a multi-disciplined artist residing in the Washington, D.C. metro area. His work includes television production, documentaries, animation and, more recently, apparel design. Nguyen studied classical art in Rome, Italy and graduated from the University of Maryland in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree. in imaging and digital.
 
In 2005, Nguyen created ANH OI, a trendy apparel line that is internationally recognized. This new source of outlet for his creativity allows him to express himself on T-shirts and other apparel.  His designs incorporate a humorous yet subtle mixture of Vietnamese culture and modern influences.

A personal project of his is producing a new animation series titled “Legends of Vietnam” (LOV), in which he retells ancient Vietnamese folklore that contain proverbs and underlying moral lessons. He hopes that the characters in this animation will ignite new interest in the Vietnamese culture and provide the younger generation with a variety of heroes and heroines to look up to.

Nguyen plans to focus his work on the Vietnamese community at-large to educate and inspire the next generation of young people about the Vietnamese culture.

Nam Ninja - Spoken Word Artist
Nam Ninja is an Artist with a passion for writing poetry and music.  He has studied guitar, drums, bass, performance art, drama/acting, dance, and poetry/spoken word.  Nam graduated from the University of California, Irvine with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Film Studies.  An avid supporter of the arts, Nam believes in freedom of expression and has co-founded music/spoken word groups, such as the Uncultivated Rabbits at UC Irvine, and Big Saigon in Westminster.  It is his dream and also the dream of many others in his community to encourage, support, inspire, and create art with and for the world. 

Ham Tran – Filmmaker
Ham Tran graduated with a master’s degree in film and television from UCLA, where his short films have won numerous accolades including the title of National Finalist for the Student Academy Awards for two years in a row for his short films “The Prescription” and “Pomegranate.” Tran’s thesis film “The Anniversary” won over 30 international awards, including the prestigious USA Film Festival award for Best Short Film.  In 2004, The Anniversary was a semi-finalist for the Academy Awards for Best Live Action Short.

Tran’s first feature debut “Journey from the Fall”world-premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and has garnered over 10 awards in worldwide film festivals. Imaginasian Entertainment released the film theatrically in spring 2007.

Yvonne Trinh – Visual Artist
Yvonne Trinh graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in general studio art.  She was also an exchange student at Marino Institute, Dublin, Ireland, for a program focusing on watercolor. Trinh has joined the VAALA teaching team since summer 2007.  Trinh’s art teaching philosophy is to have fun with art.  Learning art is helpful for problem solving. It is useful in academics and with everyday situations in life.  Art allows students to learn to see things from different perspectives.  Trinh currently teaches VAALA’s Children’s Arts & Music class.

Victor Vu - Filmmaker
Victor Vu received his bachelor’s degree in film production at Loyola Marymount University.  His thesis project, a short film entitled “Firecracker”won the Short Film Award at the Newport Beach International Film Festival as well as the Student Showcase Award at the Hamptons International Film Festival.  Vu spent the next six years working in visual effects for Sony Pictures Imageworks and Eastman Kodak’s Cinesite Digital Studios, on such films as “Starship Troppers,” “Contact” and “X-Men 2.”

In 2002, he formed the company, Strange Logic Entertainment, with producing partner Philip Silverman.  Vu’s feature film debut, “First Morning (Buổi Sáng Đầu Năm)” received the Best Feature Film Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and was released by Illuminare Entertainment in 2005.  His second feature film, a supernatural thriller entitled “Oan Hồn (Spirits),” premiered at numerous film festivals including the Bangkok International Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, Fantasia Montreal and was distributed by MonteCristo International.

Most recently, Vu’s production company in association with the MonteCristo Fund LLC, completed the first episode of “Mysterious World (Thế  Giới Huyền Bí),” an anthology series of supernatural stories.  Victor is currently developing “The Informer,” an action/thriller set in Vietnam.