Join us for a screening of the critically acclaimed film Three Seasons (1999), on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the 30th anniversary of U.S.-Vietnam Reconciliation. This screening marks the closing segment of Columbia University's symposium Conversations Left Unsettled: Healing the Wounds of War in Vietnam through the Arts, followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the film's director, Tony Bui, and Director of Columbia University's Weatherhead East Asian Institute and History Professor, Dr. Lien-Hang Nguyen.

Three Seasons is a poignant and visually stunning film that weaves together the stories of four individuals in post-war Vietnam, capturing the essence of a country in transition during the Doi Moi period and the resulting social changes. The discussion will cover the film's themes and its portrayal of Vietnam during this transformative era, and delve into the broader context of the Doi Moi reforms — which aimed at moving Vietnam away from a centrally planned economy to a "socialist-oriented market economy" that has shaped modern Vietnam.

Three Seasons has garnered numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award, and Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival. This special screening will feature the newly remastered Three Seasons, digitally restored to 4K from the original 35mm camera negative.

Speakers

Tony Bui  is a Sundance award-winning writer, director, and producer. He is currently Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute and teaches in Columbia’s School of the Arts graduate film program. His films include Yellow Lotus, Three Seasons, Green Dragon, and The Throwaways. His short film, Yellow Lotus, was the first Vietnamese language film to be screened at the Sundance Film Festival and received over 15 national and international festival awards. His feature film debut, Three Seasons, was the first American-Vietnamese co-production to be filmed entirely in Vietnam. The film received the Grand Jury Prize, Audience Award, and Best Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival, along with two Independent Spirit Awards nominations. Three Seasons was also Vietnam’s official entry to the Oscars, where it was shortlisted. He is a recipient of the Humanitas Prize and an alumnus of the Sundance Institute's Screenwriting and Directing Labs. He has written and developed projects for HBO, Warner Bros., and NBC. He previously served on the Board of Directors of Film Independent for seven years and is currently on the Global Advisory Board of Fulbright University Vietnam. In the summer of 2024, in partnership with Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute, he held public talks in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Beijing. These events, titled Conversations in Storytelling: Regional Voices, Global Impact, brought together notable filmmakers in each city for discussions on the role and significance of regional storytelling in today’s world. In April 2025, Tony and the Criterion Channel will launch a curated program of American and Vietnamese films in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. This landmark series marks the first time a showcase of Vietnamese cinema will be available for streaming on the Criterion Channel. His next narrative feature film is based on Nick Ut's iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning "Napalm Girl” photo from the Vietnam War.

Dr. Lien-Hang T. Nguyen is the Dorothy Borg Associate Professor in the History of the United States and East Asia in the Columbia University Department of History and the Director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University. She specializes in the Vietnam War, U.S.-Southeast Asian relations, and the global Cold War. She is currently working on two projects. The first is a comprehensive history of the 1968 Tet Offensive, and the second explores the role of gender, people’s diplomacy, and transnational networks of anti-war activism during the Vietnam War. She is the author of Hanoi’s War: An International History of the War for Peace in Vietnam (2012), which won the Society for Military History (SMH) Edward M. Coffman Prize, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Stuart L. Bernath Prize, and the UKY Department of History Alice S. Hallam Prize; was a finalist for the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians First Book Prize; and earned her an invitation to participate in the 2012 Library of Congress National Book Festival. She is also the General Editor of the three-volume Cambridge History of the Vietnam War (2024), and she and Professor Paul T. Chamberlin are the Co-Editors of the Cambridge Studies in U.S. Foreign Relations series. 

This program is in partnership with Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute.