By Assistant Professor Vera Brunner-Sung, Department of Theatre

(Caption for photo, right: Meeting with Hmong American artists and filmmakers in St. Paul)

With the support of a faculty grant from the Migration, Mobility and Immobility Project, I traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota, in late September to begin casting for my upcoming feature film, BITTERROOT. The story follows the experiences of a divorced and unemployed Hmong man living with his mother in Montana. When she suddenly falls ill, he must come to terms with the shameful secret he’s been carrying. Set against the seasonal harvest for morels, a coveted delicacy that thrives in wildfire burn areas, BITTERROOT explores the beauty and heartache of life for refugees long after resettlement. 

BITTERROOT is set in a real-life Hmong community and strives for an authentic, intimate sense of character and place. Some of the very few Asian people in the state, Hmong were resettled in Montana in the mid-1970s after fighting in the American-backed “Secret War” in Laos. We decided to begin the casting process in the Twin Cities because of its long-standing Hmong arts community, where a thriving theater and filmmaking scene have created a locus of Hmong talent. (After California, Minnesota is home to the second-largest Hmong population in the U.S.)

Working with my producers Kazua Melissa Vang, who is local to St. Paul, and Ki Jin Kim, who traveled from Los Angeles, we held two days of auditions, visited elder centers to connect with interested seniors (three roles in the film are elders), and had in-person meetings with several of our cultural consultants whom I’d previously only worked with long-distance. And while auditions were the main focus of the trip, we also held two events to meet and connect with local Hmong artists and filmmakers. For this film centering on Hmong characters, it’s vital that we create professional opportunities for Hmong people behind the camera, as well. The trip was highly productive and we are excited to continue on our journey toward production next summer.