Fifty years after the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, CRASH LANDING: SURVIVING BABYLIFT (working title) explores the complicated struggles of Vietnamese orphans who found new families, homes, and identities in America – a nation recently at war with their birth country. In April of 1975, the US government airlifted thousands of orphans – many of them Amerasian – out of Vietnam in the chaotic waning days of the war. Some have called Operation Babylift one of the few positive legacies of the long and bloody conflict. But were the orphans’ lives in the US a model of the American Dream? A true rags to riches story? Or was there something lost in gaining the freedoms of their adopted homeland? Born into a war zone to parents facing bombings, poverty, and desperation, an enigmatic trauma haunts many of these now middle-aged Vietnam War survivors.

The documentary is centered around the shocking and traumatic crash landing of Operation Babylift’s maiden flight. Anchoring the film in this visceral moment provides a dramatic framework for exploring the stories of five Vietnamese adoptees – those who survived the crash as well as adoptees from other flights. Each chapter of the film tracks the ups and downs of the doomed plane, the operation’s frantic continuation, and the repercussions of America’s final withdrawal as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon. This film will draw viewers into the emotional, complex, and inspiring stories of the children that the mission intended to save. Mixing motion graphics, animation, archival footage, compelling still photos, and verité scenes with our main storytellers, CRASH LANDING: SURVIVING BABYLIFT takes us through the turbulent experiences of wartime transnational adoptees after the photographers, reporters, and agencies leave. 

The film explores the legacy of war and the traumatic impact on even the youngest survivors.

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