Release Year: 2008

Duration: 60 min

Availability:

Related: History, International, Life & Culture, ITVS, PBS

ANATOMY OF A SPRINGROLL is an award-winning account of one man’s journey to reconcile his Vietnamese roots with his current American life. In 1973, Paul Kwan’s father bribed a customs official to allow the youngest of his 24 children to flee the political chaos that was Saigon. Living in San Francisco 20 years later, Kwan looks to the language of food to best reconcile his past. From the food-filled streets of San Francisco’s outdoor markets to the back streets of the Saigon he left two decades before, Kwan seeks the secret ingredient to blend the traditions of his family’s culture with his adopted American life. He discovers, however, that the real secret is his 73-year old mother and her belief that to understand a culture, one must first learn the language of its food. Blending documentary footage with Kwan’s own artwork, this film is a visual feast celebrating the ability of food to capture a culture’s traditions and to comfort its generations.