As queer trans and gender non-conforming children of the Vietnamese diaspora, we are fragmented at the crossroads of being displaced from not only a sense of belonging to our ancestral land, but also our own bodies which are conditioned by society to stray away from our most authentic existence. Yet these bodies of ours are the vessels we sail to embark on a lifetime voyage of return to our original selves. It is our bodies that navigate the treacherous tides of normative systems that impose themselves on our very being. And it is our bodies that act as community lighthouses for collective liberation. Ultimately, the landscape of our bodies is our blueprint to remembering, to healing, to blooming.
Trâm Anh Nguyễn (he/him) is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in filmmaking and photography based in Vietnam and Canada. Binding documentation and storytelling across mediums, his work aims to look with a softened gaze, revealing universal themes woven together of tenderness, longing, hope, gentleness, resilience, and memory. He wishes to continue in creating more projects that reflect on the intricate politics of gender and culture, and explore his queer-trans identity in interconnection with his Vietnamese roots. His short films have screened at TIFF Next Wave, InsideOut Film Festival, Pleasure Dome, and TATE x Otherness Archive.