Vietnam veteran Mike Boehm will lead a screening of the film, "The
Sound of the Violin at My Lai: Hope Rises from the Ashes," followed by
a discussion on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Kirner-Johnson Red
Pit. The film and discussion are free and open to the public.
The film, directed by one of Vietnam's leading filmmakers Tran Van Thuy, won "best short" at the Asian-Pacific film festival in Thailand, 1998. The film's message is one of recovery and renewal from the site of one of the worst massacres of the Vietnam War. Sepia-toned images from the past yield to bright-colored images from today: children playing; two American helicopter pilots reuniting with women they rescued from the slaughter; Mike Boehm playing his violin as an offering to the dead on all sides; the inauguration of a Vietnamese-American Peace Park.
During the war, Boehm served in military intelligence. He has spent the last decade working on reconstruction and reconciliation projects in My Lai and elsewhere in Vietnam.
The film, directed by one of Vietnam's leading filmmakers Tran Van Thuy, won "best short" at the Asian-Pacific film festival in Thailand, 1998. The film's message is one of recovery and renewal from the site of one of the worst massacres of the Vietnam War. Sepia-toned images from the past yield to bright-colored images from today: children playing; two American helicopter pilots reuniting with women they rescued from the slaughter; Mike Boehm playing his violin as an offering to the dead on all sides; the inauguration of a Vietnamese-American Peace Park.
During the war, Boehm served in military intelligence. He has spent the last decade working on reconstruction and reconciliation projects in My Lai and elsewhere in Vietnam.
