SFSU's Vietnamese American Studies Center will bring noted Vietnamese documentary filmmaker Tran Van Thuy to campus Friday, March 14, for a talk and screening of two of his award-winning films. The event takes place from noon to 2 p.m. in room 116 of the Psychology building.

Thuy will show the films "The Sound of Violin in My Lai," which was named the best short film of 1988 in the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and "The Story of Kindness," which won the Silver Dove Prize at the Leipzig International Film Festival in 1988.

A combat cameraman in Vietnam from 1966 to 1972, Thuy has written and directed more than 20 films in his career. His films are a blend of social history, personal recollection and oral testimony, says Minh Hoa Ta, co-director of the Vietnamese American Study Center, the only such center in the country.

"His films bring social issues to life and communicate effectively to audiences. Mr. Thuy has penetrating insights into Vietnamese community life, and social relations," said Ta, an assistant professor of Asian American Studies. "His films have examined Vietnamese society through a critical and humanitarian lens with the hope of generating more positive changes there."

Thuy, named a Rockefeller Fellow for 2002-03, works for the Vietnam Central Documentary Film Unit and the Vietnam Cinema Association. His most celebrated work has been his 30-minute documentary "The Sound of the Violin in My Lai," which takes a fresh look at My Lai since the massacre, which occurred 35 year ago on Sunday, March 16.

The documentary examines the widely known 1968 incident in which U.S. soldiers slaughtered 504 men, women and children in a tiny village in the central province of Quang Ngai. The film also features the story of U.S. veteran Mike Boehm who returned to help create the My Lai Peace Park and who would play his violin beside the graves of massacred villagers.