When a Stand-Up Comic Picked Up a Camera — One Việt Kiều's Search for Roots
Fred Le grew up in the Bay Area to refugee parents. In 2017, he moved to Vietnam with one question -- why wouldn't his mother go back? His documentary follows 20-plus Viet Kieu seeking answers.
In 2017, Fred Le did something his family couldn't understand: he moved to Vietnam.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was the child of refugees who fled after the war. Vietnam was a place that existed only in family stories — his mother's homeland, and the place she refused to ever go back to.
"I wanted to know why my mom wouldn't return."
He bought a one-way ticket.
Finding Out How "Un-Vietnamese" He Was
Fred landed in Hanoi — not the south, where his family came from. The north felt more foreign, more exciting.
The excitement didn't last.
"Within weeks, I realized how un-Vietnamese I was. My accent was all wrong. My language skills were far worse than I thought." And the moment locals pegged him as Việt Kiều — overseas Vietnamese — the dynamic shifted. "They lost patience fast."
Not being accepted as one of their own. That became the seed of his documentary.
Twenty-Some Việt Kiều, One Question
After three years in Vietnam, Fred started filming others who'd had similar experiences.
His documentary The Empathizer premiered at Viet Film Fest in 2024 and earned a Best Feature nomination. It follows more than 20 second-generation Việt Kiều. Some came to build businesses. Some came to figure themselves out. Some were just running from life in America.
They all share one question: "Where do I actually belong?"
The Language Problem
Many of the film's subjects say Vietnamese is their deepest frustration.
It's not just about fluency. Vietnamese pronouns shift based on age and social hierarchy. Most Việt Kiều grew up speaking the language only with parents and grandparents, so they default to "con" — the word a child uses when talking to elders.
The result: when they talk to people their own age, they sound like a kid being cute.
"It makes it really hard to be taken seriously," Fred says.
Why Do the Children Go Back to the Place Their Parents Fled?
That's the question at the heart of The Empathizer.
First-generation immigrants carry too much pain. Vietnam is the place they left behind. But for the second generation — raised in America — Vietnam means something else: opportunity, and a place where everyone looks like them.
One moment during filming caught Fred off guard. He was on a VietJet flight, and as the plane landed, Hello Vietnam started playing through the cabin speakers. He couldn't explain why, but tears came. Something buried deep had surfaced.
That scene became the emotional core of the film.
Still No Answer
After wrapping the documentary, Fred moved back to Los Angeles.
He didn't stay in Vietnam. But those three years changed him. He leaned into work about Vietnamese American identity — in 2022, he and friends launched Embarrassed by Night, an all-Vietnamese comedy showcase.
Ask him now where he belongs.
He'd probably laugh: "I still don't know."
Maybe that question was never meant to have a clean answer.
