Marlo Poras, Framingham, MA
[86 minutes, DigiBeta]
Mai's America is an intimate portrait of Mai, a spunky, mini-skirted daughter of Ho Chi Minh's revolution. Fueled by the opportunity for a better education and enticed by MTV-inspired visions of America, Mai travels to the United States for her senior year of high school. Nothing could prepare Mai for her crash landing in rural Mississippi. Her relationships with white Pentecostal and black Baptist host-families, self-proclaimed red-necks, transvestites, and South Vietnamese immigrants challenge her long-held ideas about America, about herself, about freedom, and even about Vietnam.