Stories We Carry: Carving Out New Space For Asian Diaspora Cinema In North America
The conversation follows a screening of Summer School, 2001, the debut feature by Czech–Vietnamese filmmaker Dužan Duong. | Source: Citrus
Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) audiences are among the fastest-growing cultural forces in the United States. They over-index by 128% on platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime, according to Nielsen. Their buying power now reaches $1.6 trillion.
Yet Vietnamese and Southeast Asians stories rarely appear on American screens.
This gap is the focus of Stories We Carry: Diaspora Storytellers Shaping American Culture . The event is organised by Citrus, an independent distributor focused on bringing Asian and diaspora films to North American theaters.
Held at Columbia University at the Pulitzer Hall in New York City in partnership with the Columbia Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Vietnam Arts in Action (VAIA) initiative, the event brings together Vietnamese voices across film, literature and music to discuss how diaspora narratives shape culture today. The conversation follows a screening of Summer School, 2001, the debut feature by Czech–Vietnamese filmmaker Dužan Duong.
The program signals a broadshift as diaspora cinema begins to carve out a new space in the American theatrical market.
A gathering of Vietnamese narratives across mediums
Stories We Carry brings together Vietnamese artists working across mediums but connected by the experience of the diaspora.
Dustin Nguyen, a Vietnamese American actor and director whose career spans three decades, joins the panel. His recent credits include Dope Thief on Apple TV+ and the martial arts drama Warrior. In 2023, he starred in The Accidental Getaway Driver, which premiered at Sundance.
Dužan Duong, born in Hanoi and raised in the Czech Republic, represents a younger generation of diaspora filmmakers. His debut feature Summer School, 2001 premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2025.
The panel also features Hien, a Brooklyn-based Vietnamese singer and producer blending electronic textures with soulful vocals, and Kevin Nguyen, novelist and features editor at The Verge.
Moderated by Tony Bui and Kenneth Nguyen of The Vietnamese podcast, the discussion examines who shapes public narratives, how Vietnamese stories travel across borders, and what it means to release a diaspora film in the United States.
A new model of theatrical distribution
The event also signals the next step for Reel Citrus, founded in 2025 by executive director Brittany Tran, a company working to build theatrical pathways for Asian and diaspora films in North America.
The company focuses on theatrical-first releases targeting Gen Z and multicultural audiences, using community partnerships, grassroots campaigns and youth-led outreach to activate diaspora audiences in key markets.
Before launching its distribution arm, Citrus helped build audiences for Vietnamese titles including The Ancestral Home and Mang Mẹ Đi Bỏ (Leaving Mom). Those campaigns sold more than 84,000 tickets across North America during its opening weekends in 2025 and generated over 4.2 million organic impressions across social media.
Now the company is stepping into full distribution.
Reel Citrus has acquired U.S. theatrical rights to Summer School, 2001, marking its first fully managed release. A summer 2026 rollout is planned, beginning in diaspora-heavy markets including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston and New York. Additional cities will follow depending on audience response.
The release is part of a broader distribution model the company is developing to support diaspora filmmakers while building sustainable theatrical audiences. Unlike traditional independent distribution deals that often lock films into long-term library ownership, the Citrus model prioritises theatrical and transactional release windows while allowing filmmakers to retain meaningful long-term control of their work.
The search for language, belonging and love
At the centre of the release is a quiet coming-of-age story.
In Summer School, 2001, a red-haired teenager named Kien returns to his family in the Czech border town of Cheb after ten years in Vietnam. The reunion is uneasy. He finds a distant father, tired mother, and harsh younger brother instead of the warm welcome he expected.
As summer unfolds, the brothers drift between friendship and rivalry. Their small border town becomes the backdrop of a family searching for language, belonging, and love.
The film stars Vietnamese–Czech actor and rapper Duong Bui The as Kien and To Tien Tai as his younger brother Tai. Tai’s performance earned Best Actor at Viet Film Fest 2025, where the film also won Best Film.
Set in the early 2000s, Summer School, 2001 explores what Duong calls “the ache of growing up between worlds.”
For Citrus, the film represents more than a debut. It is part of a broader experiment: how diaspora cinema can move from the margins of festivals into the center of theatrical culture.
About the event:
Stories We Carry
- Date & Time: March 16, 2026 — 11:30 AM
- Location: Pulitzer Hall, Columbia University, New York
Summer School, 2001 Screening
- Date & Time: March 16, 2026 — 7:00 PM
- Location: Bohemian National Hall, New York
Follow this link to register.