June 22, 2007

Contemporary, urban Vietnam, onscreen
O.C.-raised Stephane Gauger shot his touching drama in Saigon on a shoestring budget.
By RICHARD CHANG
The Orange County Register

A 10-year-old orphan. A beautiful flight attendant. An earnest zookeeper.

These people may not seem to have much in common. But in Stephane Gauger's new film, they're all looking for love and companionship in the bustling city of Saigon.

"Owl and the Sparrow" – a contemporary drama in Vietnamese with English subtitles – is the first feature film by Gauger, who grew up in Orange County and graduated from Fountain Valley High School and Cal State Fullerton. The touching movie, shot entirely in Vietnam, makes its Southern California premiere Saturday and Tuesday at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

For Gauger, it's an excellent opportunity to showcase his writing and directing skills for an audience that may include some important industry folks.

"When you have a very small film with no stars, you need all the help you can get to open doors for distribution," said Gauger, 36, who now lives in Los Angeles. "It's a festival that helps out, has a better chance of launching new careers than the regional film fests."

Gauger has already screened "Owl and the Sparrow" at several film festivals in the U.S. and abroad – Rotterdam, Cinequest (San Jose), Cleveland, Rome, and Opendoek, Belgium. It has also appeared at Asian American film festivals in San Francisco and Chicago.

(It was scheduled to close April's Vietnamese International Film Festival in Orange County, but got pulled when it made the L.A. Film Festival.)

So far, the responses have been consistently positive.

"I know audiences enjoy the film. It's a slice-of-life film. My goal is to have the film show to all audiences."

Though this is his first turn as a director, Gauger is no stranger to the movies.

He has done lighting for a number of projects, and is part of the "new wave" of Vietnamese-American filmmaking, which includes several Orange County auteurs.

He served as gaffer on Santa Ana-raised Ham Tran's "Journey from the Fall," and on Buena Park resident Charlie Nguyen's "The Rebel." He even had a small role in "The Rebel," playing the French Colonel Derue.

Unlike Nguyen, who faced difficulties shooting in Vietnam and had to resubmit his "Rebel" script several times to cultural authorities, Gauger did not encounter too many problems shooting "Owl" in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City.

"There was no drama when we shot," he said. "The ministry of culture and information liked the script. I'm not a very political person. So my scripts are not very political. So that makes getting official permission much easier."

Still, the movie is one of only a handful of works shot in the communist country by Vietnamese living in the U.S.

"Owl and the Sparrow" stars Cat Ly, an actress/singer who tours Vietnamese-American venues and also appeared in "Journey from the Fall"; Le The Lu, who made his debut in 2005's "Buffalo Boy"; and Pham Thi Han, making her feature-film debut as the orphan girl.

Tran, director of "Journey from the Fall," also edited and executive produced Gauger's picture.

"Stephane's great," Tran said. "He's an ally. He's very easy going. He just goes with the flow. He knows what he wants. With him, there's no stress, whatsoever."

The director of "Journey" said he loves what his friend has done with "Owl and the Sparrow."

"The film is great. He's a pro."

Gauger took hand-held cameras and shot digitally in the streets of Saigon, without blocking streets, in a documentary style.

He recruited local crew members and actors, bouncing around 30 locations in 15 days. The film cost less than $100,000.

"My tastes are urban and contemporary," Gauger said. "I shot digitally, using the latest tools to create a new cinéma véritéfor Vietnamese cinema. The themes I wanted to address were dislocation in the big city, and certain moods of loneliness. We have a modern single man, a modern single woman, and a fish-out-of-water character.

"These characters embody a little bit of me. There's a little bit of me in every character that I write."

Gauger hopes to get "Owl and the Sparrow" picked up for national distribution.

His next project is "Powder Blue," a screenplay he co-wrote with Timothy Bui. Starring ForestWhitaker and Jessica Biel, the film is slated to start filming later this year.

"There's such a huge saturation of indie films, you really have to separate yourself from the rest," he said. "I don't want to make just another good film that languishes unseen. I want to make filmthat's seen by wide audiences, that's universal."