Nguyen Tan Hoang
2021
Maybe Never (But I'm Counting the Days)
Nguyen Tan Hoang
Maybe Never restages both a multitude of narratives about the loss of innocence and the changing nature of sexual fantasy and activity in the age of AIDS. While the question of Asian American identity is never specifically addressed, Nguyen's casting of Asian Americans as the objects of desire, the creators of fantasy and the participants in erotic exchanges with one another produces a distinctive aesthetic which firmly incorporates Asian American bodies, perspectives and imaginations within a contemporary sexual landscape of risk, desire, regret and creativity.
Maybe Never (But I'm Counting the Days)
Pirated!
Nguyen Tan Hoang
A riotous, erotic kaleidoscope in which a Vietnamese refugee’s recollections of fleeing his country by boat become enmeshed with nostalgia and big-screen fantasies of shirtless pirates and sailors—including images of Brad Davis in Fassbinder’s Querelle. (UCLA Film & Television Archive)
Pirated!
Forever Linda!
Nguyen Tan Hoang
This short bittersweet video presents a series of daydreams (and nightmares) around the elusive and ubiquitous figure of Supermodel Linda Evangelista, lurking in the mind of an Asian American teenager on the verge of queerdom. Obsessional projections figure in scenarios like receiving obscene phone calls from Linda and impersonating Ms. E. on a Japanese talk show, interspersed between rehearsals of a coming out. The quintessential Supermodel, famous for changing her image radically from season to season, the Linda Phenomenon personifies the ideals of femininity in this culture and evokes the queer practice of passing from day to day. Backed by a soundtrack of French love songs sung by Vietnamese superstar-singer Thanh Lan, the tape poses questions about queer childhood narratives, cross-gender and cross-racial identification.
Forever Linda!
