American Nurse (1992)

America's war in Vietnam is over. But the scars of that war remain with many Asian Americans who were sent there. More than 60,000 Asian Americans served in the United States armed forces during the Vietnam war. Many who lived through this lost war in Southeast Asian still suffer silently from post traumatic stress disorder. But there are others willing to speak out about the conditions that they, as Americans of Asian ancestry, experienced in Vietnam. New York-born Lieutenant Lily Lee (Adams), now of Mill Valley, California nursed wounded American soldiers and worked in triage for a year in Cu Chi. Her story in American Nurse chronicles one Asian American woman's wartime experience and presents the reasons behind her decision to serve in a war against an Asian people. She tells of her time in Vietnam, what she saw, what she felt, her attitudes towards war and the racism that Asian Americans suffered in Vietnam and the United States.

American Nurse is an innovative departure from the traditional news and public affairs oriented way of telling a television documentary story. The documentary is first of a four part series on Asian Americans in Vietnam.

Airings:

• PBS
• KCTS-TV
• Channel 9 Seattle, 1993
• Military Channel, Washington, D.C., 1994

Screenings:

• Hiroshima Firlm Festival, 1993
• Asian Cenevision, New York, 1993
• American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1993
• Olympia Film Festival, 1992

Distributors:

• Video Out (Vancouver)

Original music.

Duration: 29:23

Asian American Film