The story of desperate American efforts to save the lives of allies in the wake of the fall of Saigon is retold in Director Rory Kennedy’s documentary Last Days in Vietnam.
Kennedy’s film reveals the chaotic final days of the Vietnam War, after Communist victory becomes inevitable and the U.S. prepares to withdraw. With North Vietnamese forces closing in, Americans still stationed there began to consider the certain imprisonment and possible death of their South Vietnamese co-workers and friends. But plans for an official evacuation had become terminally delayed by Congressional gridlock and other factors. So racing a ticking clock, a number of heroic Americans took matters into their own hands and began a desperate unsanctioned effort to save as many lives as possible. Last Days in Vietnam was nominated for a 2015 Academy Award.
Following the DGA Special Projects Committee’s Documentary Series screening in Los Angeles on April 15, Kennedy discussed the making of the film in a conversation moderated by Director Rick King (Voices in Wartime).
Kennedy has directed and produced more than 25 documentaries including Thank You, Mr. President: Helen Thomas at the White House; American Hollow; A Boy’s Life; Pandemic: Facing AIDS; and Ethel, an inside look at the remarkable life of her mother Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Robert F. Kennedy. In 2007, Kennedy won the Primetime Emmy Award for “Best Non-Fiction Film” for her documentary feature Ghosts of Abu Ghraib.