This VHS, produced by Kalamazoo residents Frank Jamison and Huan Le, arose out of a Grand Rapids Historical Commission project to document the story of Vietnamese immigrants in West Michigan. ...more»

Documentary about Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations, who subsequently became president of the World Bank. The documentary will combine an interview with Mr. McNamara discussing some of the tragedies and glories of the 20th Century, archival footage, documents, and an original score by Philip Glass. ...more»

A feature-length documentary that explores the rise and fall of this radical movement, as former members speak candidly about the idealistic passion that drove them to "bring the war home" and the trajectory that placed them on the FBI's most wanted list. ...more»

Storywriter/ producer/ director Michael Cimino's epic about war and friendship - and only his second film (following Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)). It is a powerful, disturbing and compelling look at the Vietnam War through the lives of three blue-collar, Russian-American friends in a small steel-mill town before, during, and after their service in the war. ...more»

Digitally remastered with 49 minutes of previously unseen footage, Apocalypse Now Redux is the reference standard of Francis Coppola's 1979 epic. Based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, this is a controversial addition to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. We follow Captain Willard on his mission into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe. Notes taken by Coppola's wife have recently been used to create "Hearts Of Darkness" - a fascinating and revealing account of the making of this movie.

The war in Vietnam was the most filmed conflict in world history. But, unlike the thousands of Western journalists, a small band of North Vietnamese and NLF cameramen has largely been forgotten, though they founded Vietnamese cinema. GAO RANG (meaning grilled or burnt rice) tells the story of these cameramen/soldiers. In their own words, they describe their experiences filming in combat, first against the French and later the Americans. ...more»

In this fictitious film, "Vietnam's finest filmmaker" (The Los Angeles Times), Dang Nhat Minh, explores the dramatic impact of the war on the daily lives of the Vietnamese people through the story of a woman who attempts to keep from her family the news of her husband's death. The film was nominated for the Moscow International Film Festival's Golden Prize. (ThingsAsian)

The story of every soldier whose innocence was lost in the war-torn jungles of Vietnam. Chris Taylor arrives and quickly discovers that his worst enemies are not just the Viet Cong, but gnawing fear, physical exhaustion and the anger growing within himself. (VHS)

On her twenty-fourth birthday, Barbara Sonneborn received a knock on her door from a United States Army soldier, and heard the words "We regret to inform you...." Her husband Jeff had been killed by a mortar in Vietnam. She received a box containing Jeff's dog tags still encrusted with his blood. Twenty years later, Sonneborn embarks on a journey through the country where he fought and died. Woven into her personal odyssey are interviews with American and Vietnamese widows from both sides of the conflict who speak openly about the men they loved and how war changed their lives forever. ...more»

In the long years of war against France and the United States, Vietnamese women fought alongside men as equals. Women such as Mrs. Binh, who negotiated with Henry Kissinger at the Paris Peace Accords, and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Dinh, commander of the Vietcong forces, reached the highest positions of power. But 20 years after the signing of the peace agreement, the revival of Confucianism and the spread of market forces are conspiring to relegate women once again to the role of second class citizens. This film looks at what happened to Mrs. Binh and Mrs. Dinh and three other women since the war. ...more»

This saga of the Vietnam War shows the dehumanizing process that turns people into trained killers. Young soldiers are plunged into a boot-camp hell, then they face the nightmare of combat in Hue City. (DVD)

This VHS focuses on the memorial in Washington, DC, the reason for building it and the meaning it holds for Vietnam veterans, the families of servicemen killed in the war, and others.

An eleven-hour DVD program (in conjunction with Stanley Karnow’s book, Vietnam, a History) carefully analyzes the costs and consequences of this war that changed a generation and continues to color U.S. thinking on many military and foreign policy issues. ...more»

Using historic and rare footage taken within the walls of North Vietnam’s prisons, this VHS program provides a compelling look at the soldiers who endured years of torture and imprisonment. Interviews with these seemingly ordinary men show the remarkable determination it took to survive the unspeakable conditions they faced.

VHS documentary in which seven women who served in Vietnam as nurses and Red Cross personnel describe why they went, what they did there, how life in a combat zone changed them, and how their experience continues to affect them today. (No Time for Tears series)

Exciting adventures appear at every turn as children are introduced to Vietnam’s varied geography and see how the people of Vietnam live, work and play. In this 25-minute VHS, children learn why many Vietnamese people immigrated to the U.S. and about the traditions these immigrants keep alive.

Based on the book by Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, this VHS shows how heroism becomes the order of the day as soldiers refuse to yield to the North Vietnamese in the Ia Drang Valley, in spite of heavy losses of life, in the first major battle of the war.

A VHS survey of the social and economic progress made by women in Vietnam since, and before, the end of the Vietnamese conflict in 1975, including sequences showing the participation of Vietnamese women in the conflict. (Rising Above series)

Compiled by Kalamazoo Public Library staff. 

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