A Village Called Versailles

It takes a village - to kick big government in the ass

Comments (0) By Lee Williams Thursday, May 13 2010

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Some of the most invisible victims of the Katrina nightmare were the Vietnamese Americans living in the New Orleans neighborhood of Versailles. The small area is home to the most concentrated community of Vietnamese living outside of Vietnam. After the disaster, the devastated people discovered yet more horrifying news: The city planned to put a landfill in the area that was once their home. The film A Village Called Versailles documents their collective outrage against the idea of being dumped on - literally - yet again. Everyone from grandmothers who don't speak English to their Southern twang-accented grandchildren find their voices and create a loud collective yawp of righteous indignation against injustice. One woman in the film astutely asks, "Why did you put this in the Vietnamese-American community where people don't speak the language, so you think they can't protest?" The film is a deeply moving document of the power of grassroots rage against the machine. 7 p.m. Rice University, 6100 Main. For information, call 713-348-8000 or visit www.houstonpbs.org. Free.
Tue., May 18, 7 p.m., 2010