Claiming a dedicated stake in social causes on screen that reflect their real-world beliefs is a powerful driving force for up-and-coming filmmakers. Award-winning writer-director, Oanh-Nhi Nguyen is one such emerging talent, whose commitment to her morals is showcased in her new short film, ‘Little Bird.’

The auteur remains steadfast in her dedication to achieving gender and racial justice in her storytelling. Through her lens, Nguyen amplifies Asian women and girls, weaving narratives that explore diaspora, immigrant identity and the complex bonds between generations. The AFI Conservatory MFA graduate is one of just ten filmmakers whose projects were chosen for Hillman Grad and Indeed’s Rising Voices program.

Nguyen co-penned ‘Little Bird’ with Ysabeaux Ng, as well as helmed the project. The filmmaker based the short on the true story of housing organizer Debbie Wei, and was also inspired by her own work that’s featured in her docuseries ‘Taking Root.’ Chantal Thuy, Jolie Eden, Paul Yen and Perry Yung star in the movie, which is a is a poignant reflection of struggling immigrant families of the 1980s.

‘Little Bird,’ which is set in 1980 in L.A., follows Linh Tran (Thuy), a disillusioned Vietnamese woman who’s tasked with carrying out evictions for a landlord. When she’s instructed to evict Vietnamese refugees, she’s forced to contemplate her own humanity. She must decide whether to follow through with their eviction process or reject her career in solidarity with those who remind her of home.

‘Little Bird’ had its West Coast Premiere on Monday, August 11 at the TCL Chinese 6 Theatre during the HollyShorts Film Festival. In honor of the drama’s debut L.A. screening, Nguyen generously took the time recently to talk about scribing and helming the movie during an exclusive interview over Zoom.

Film Factual (FF): You co-wrote the script for the new short film, ‘Little Bird,’ with Ysabeaux Ng. What was your inspiration in penning the screenplay for the movie?

Oanh-Nhi Nguyen (ONN): Well, ‘Little Bird’was my thesis film from my last year as a student at AFI. I graduated last year as a Directing Fellow.

I was inspired to make the short because I make both documentary and narrative films. The first project I ever directed was ‘Taking Roots.’ It’s a docuseries about how Southeast Asian refugees resettled in Philadelphia after the war in Vietnam. We really focused on how refugees were resettled, and what happened to us, after the war.

The War of Vietnam is the most highly televised war in U.S. history. But we never hear about what happened to us afterwards.

In Philadelphia, specifically, people were resettled in awful conditions. They had little or no support from the government. So I think it’s really important to have that narrative out about how the resettlement system failed refugees in the 1980s and ’90s.

The movie was also inspired by the real story of the Chinese-American organizer, Debbie Wei. She saw how refugees were resettled in Philadelphia in awful conditions. There would be 23 Vietnamese refugees in one house without glass in the winter, and with only one light bulb, for example.

There was also this awful building that Black communities were complaining about the living conditions in, so they got pushed out. Then the building was boarded up, and the Vietnamese refugees were put there.

So that inspired ‘Little Bird,’ because I wanted to show another perspective of how refugees resettled in dilapidated conditions. I also wanted to show how they resisted by participating in a rent strike with Debbie Wei.

FF: The drama stars Chantal Thuy, Perry Yung and Jolie Eden. How did you cast the film?

ONN: I actually DM’d Chantal Thuy, an amazing actress who has done some television shows. I was introduced to her during an online event by a friend during the pandemic. We kind of stayed in touch on Instagram after that.

I felt like she was the perfect person for the role, so I just DM’d her. Then we met, and she liked the script, so we made the film together. She’s an incredibly generous and talented actress, and has become such a good friend of mine. So that’s how I met Chantal.

Perry was the same thing. I think I met him through a friend of mine, Olivia Cheng, who’s a really amazing Chinese-Canadian actress. So I just DM’d Perry, and he was interested.

Then I actually met the little girl, Jolie, on Instagram, I was looking for a young Vietnamese girl, and I found her. She’s actually a child model, and this was her first time acting ever. So I built a rapport with her to make sure she was comfortable.

It took me a couple playdates with her, her aunt and Chantal to make her feel comfortable. But she did an incredible job. So Instagram was very helpful in finding my cast.

FF: Adhyaksh Amarnath served as the editor on ‘Little Bird.’ How did you work together to put the final version of the short?

ONN: I had about six-eight months to edit ‘Little Bird.’ So everything is intentional, like the cinematography, the shots we came up with and the location scouting. Everything took time, and we were very intentional about it. Since I had time as a luxury for a short film, everything was detail-oriented during the editing process.

We then had the students from my directing class watch a rough cut. I got feedback from them, I also go responses from editors several times. I also got reactions from professors, so I got so much feedback on ‘Little Burn,’ and it really helped with the editing process.

Addie was a very talented editor. We tried a lot of different variations until we found the one we have now, which we really enjoy.

FF: ‘Little Bird’ (had) its West Coast Premiere at this month’s HollyShorts Film Festival. What does it mean to you that the drama screened at the festival?

ONN: It means a lot. As a filmmaker, you always want people see your work as much as possible. So to have ‘Little Bird’ play in L.A. at HollyShorts (was) very exciting. To have locals, as well as my cast and crew, be able to see it means a lot. I (was) very excited to celebrate the movie with them in L.A.