Film Screening and Author Panel: Heaven & Earth

Global Village Foundation invites you to join us for a two-part program on Vietnam past and present day.

Film Screening - 9:00AM-12:00PM

Based on the bestselling memoirs by Le Ly Hayslip, the biographical 1993 film Heaven & Earth (directed by Oliver Stone) remains relevant to this day. The film tells the powerful and deeply moving story of one woman’s journey from a child of war to starting over again as an immigrant in America to returning to Vietnam after decades away.

After the movie, stay for the Q&A panel with the cast and crew.

About the film

• Heaven & Earth is a 1993 American biopic written and directed by Oliver Stone, and starring Tommy Lee Jones, Haing S. Ngor, Joan Chen, and Hiep Thi Le. It is the third film in Stone's Vietnam War trilogy, following Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). Stone expressed the need to balance out the trilogy by telling the story from a Vietnamese point of view.
• Le Ly Hayslip was an on-set advisor ensuring authenticity in the film adaptation of her life.
• Newcomer Hiep Thi Le had auditioned "for fun" while she was enrolled at UC Davis. She eventually landed the lead role to play Le Ly after a global search beating out thousands of hopeful actresses. Film critics hailed her performance as "extraordinary" while Stone said, "She was electric." Hiep went on to star in several more films and tv projects as well as becoming a celebrated restauranteur. When Hiep passed away in 2017, she had paved the way for other Vietnamese American actresses in Hollywood.
• Recording artist and multi-instrumentalist Kitaro composed the film which won the 1993 Golden Globe for Best Original Score.

This film is rated R. Children under 14 should be accompanied by an adult. Trigger warning: The film contains dramatizations of violence, suicide and sexual assault that may be harmful and traumatizing to some audiences.