The Living Room Wars

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The Living Room Wars
Creator Nguyen Ngoc Trang Thy
Year 2021
Bio Nguyen Ngoc Trang Thy is a Vietnamese photographer and filmmaker based in Rotterdam, NL. Thy is the first generation that was born in peacetime in her family and she was sent abroad for Western education since 17. Thy’s works mainly scrutinized her own life experience, exploring the concept of home, feeling at home and belonging in a globalising world.

Thy is currently working on her feature-length documentary called The Living Room Wars, in which she rediscovery the generational trauma that lingered in her and her family over three generations; In the context of the Vietnam Wars, the Economic Renovation and the Internet era in Vietnam.

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Western media called the Vietnam War “the Living Room War.” For filmmaker Thy Nguyen’s family, the end of the war in 1975 brought a new war into their living room. The story starts with a Ho Chi Minh TV broadcast: numerous women looking for Thy's grandfather after the war ends spark a series of bitter family disputes which last for generations.


The Living Room Wars is a film about healing and forgiveness. It shows different perspectives of women (and men) in Thy's family about the impact of family traumas caused by the Vietnam War that have resonated across the years. It is Thy Nguyen - the filmmaker's process of exploring the sharply divided generation gaps, complex Vietnam’s societal context, and dynamics since the Vietnam War as well as how Vietnam history fits into World history.