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Kim Nguyen’s Saigon Story and Min Sook Lee’s There Are No Words premiere at DOXA. Two NFB feature documentaries explore intergenerational mysteries.

PRESS RELEASE
02/04/2026

April 2, 2026 – Vancouver – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Kim Nguyen’s Noble Films/National Film Board of Canada (NFB) co-production Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom and Min Sook Lee’s award-winning NFB film There Are No Words will make their Western Canadian premieres at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival in Vancouver, running April 30–May 10, 2026. 

The two films explore how personal and political histories reverberate, revealing the truths and silences that shape families across generations. 

Saigon Story marks a powerful return to non-fiction storytelling for Nguyen, writer/director of War Witch, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. 

Iris Ng has just been nominated for Best Cinematography in a Feature Length Documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards for There Are No Words. To date, the film has also received the DOC Institute Best Documentary Award at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and an Honourable Mention for Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF.

Both filmmakers have a significant history at DOXA: in 2016, Lee received an Honourable Mention for the Colin Low Award for Canadian Documentary at DOXA for Migrant Dreams. The year before, Nguyen presented his first documentary, The Empire of Scents, at the festival—and now returns with just his second non-fiction feature. 

Screenings at DOXA 

Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom

  • Friday, May 1, 5:15 p.m., VIFF Centre
  • Thursday, May 7, 5:30 p.m., SFU Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema  

There Are No Words

  • Sunday, May 3, 2:45 p.m., SFU Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema 

More about the films

Saigon Story: Two Shootings in the Forest Kingdom by Kim Nguyen (90 min)
Producers: Nabil Mehchi (Noble Films); Robert Vroom, Ariel Nasr (NFB)
Executive Producers: Frank Fiorito, Nabil Mehchi (Noble Films); Nathalie Cloutier, Rohan Fernando (NFB)
TVO Executive Producer: Alexandra Roberts
TVO Production Executive: Aidan Denison
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/saigon-story

Which is more final, the gun or the camera? Armed with a powerful visual style, Nguyen reveals the intimate connection between two families and Eddie Adams’ “Saigon Execution”—an image that forever changed the world’s perception of the Vietnam War. Part history, part mystery, Saigon Story confronts the family secrets left in the wake of the war, exposing the resilience of survivors and the blurred legacy of wartime memory. 

Saigon Story is produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, CMF, the SODEC Quebec Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit. TVO is the lead commissioning broadcaster, with British Columbia’s Knowledge Network taking a second window.

There Are No Words by Min Sook Lee (98 min)
Produced for the NFB by Sherien Barsoum and Chanda Chevannes
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/there-are-no-words

There Are No Words examines how Cold War militarism on the Korean Peninsula enters the home, as filmmaker Min Sook Lee turns her camera toward her father—a former intelligence officer—and the silences surrounding her mother’s suicide.

There Are No Words is a National Film Board of Canada production.

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Version française ici.

Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 7,000 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.