343 - Bao Nguyen - Director of The Greatest Night In Pop

The Vietnamese with Kenneth Nguyen

Bao Nguyen is an Emmy-nominated Vietnamese American filmmaker whose work has been seen on HBO, Netflix, the New York Times, ESPN, among many others. He directed BE WATER, a deep dive into the life and journey of Bruce Lee, competed in the U.S. Documentary Competition category at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was invited to other prestigious festivals such as SXSW, Cannes, Telluride, Hot Docs, among many others. It broadcast nationally on ESPN and is the most watched ESPN 30 for 30 film ever.

His latest film, THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP, a feature documentary about the making of the seminal global hit song, "We Are the World", world premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and launched globally on Netflix on January 29th where it quickly became the number one film globally on the platform. He also recently directed Apple’s first major project in Vietnam, a Shot on iPhone film featuring Vietnam’s hottest singer, tlinh.

In addition to his directing work, he is a partner at EAST Films, a production company based in Vietnam looking to elevate Vietnamese cinema domestically and abroad. At EAST, he produced the feature ROM which won the top prize at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival and was one of the highest grossing films in Vietnam in 2020, and MAIKA which premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival.

He is 2011 PBS/WGBH Producers Workshop Fellow, an alumnus of the 2012 and 2014 Berlinale Talent Campus, a Firelight Media Fellow, and a 2022 BAFTA US Breakthrough recipient. He earned his BA in Politics/International Relations at NYU and his MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is currently repped by CAA and managed by Mosaic.

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Many of you still have the chance to record and preserve the legacies of your own families. I’ve just begun to sit with families now for interview sessions to record the rich histories of parents and explore the lives of the generations that preceded them. Don’t let your family stories go untold! Take a moment to reach out and together we will bring out your family’s story on a recorded journey. - Kenneth Nguyen

Visit vietnamstorybank.com today for more information!

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