Posts Tagged ‘american experience’
American Experience: Last Days in Vietnam (Documentary Trailer)
Documentarian Rory Kennedy gives us an in-depth look at the final days of the American presence in Saigon. It’s a story where simply following orders would play opposite to doing the right thing. And what do you think heroes do? Could those soldiers and support personnel have lived with themselves getting out safely while leaving South Vietnamese in harm’s way? Even if ordered to do so?
In April of 1975, the North Vietnamese Army was closing in on Saigon as South Vietnamese resistance was crumbling. Approximately 5,000 Americans remained with roughly 24 hours to get out. Their South Vietnamese allies, co-workers, and friends faced certain imprisonment and possible death if they remained behind. With no official evacuation plan in place, the clock ticking, and the city under fire, a number of heroic Americans took matters into their own hands, engaging in unsanctioned and often makeshift operations in a desperate effort to save as many people as possible. In those last days in Vietnam, 135,000 men, women and children managed to escape.
– American Experience PBS
Orders be damned!
Eyes on the Prize Parts 1 & 2 (Documentary Series)
Not to say that any print, audio, or audio-visual work is the end-all of what Black History Month should be… But if you have not watched the PBS American Experience documentary “Eyes On The Prize,” you have NOT had Black History Month! Above, you have your chance: Part 1 (“Awakenings”) and Part 2 (“Fighting Back”) are ready for your viewing and enrichment. Arguably, the best series on the decades-long American Civil Rights Movement. Filmmaker Henry Hampton and PBS have, no doubt, taken tremendous pride in bringing this presentation to the masses over the years.
Watch. Now.