All About Dad

All About Dad portrays life inside one Vietnamese American family where a traditional father attempts to dictate the lives of his four grown children when it comes to marriage, religion or career.

So as not to upset their father, the four adults keep certain aspects of their lives hidden. The eldest daughter, Linh, is engaged to a Buddhist despite the family’s strict Catholic upbringing; Bao reveals nothing about his personal life to either parents or siblings; Xuan hides her passion for music; and Ty, the youngest son, struggles to take his studies in biology seriously due to his passion for film.

Although the family meets every night for dinner, the air is thick with tension and secrecy as each member withdraws further into his or her own world. As the father continually attempts to determine what is best for his children, the only result he attains is pushing them further away.

Set in modern-day California, All About Dad comments on the generation gap present among traditional Vietnamese parents and their Vietnamese American children. Director/writer/producer Mark Tran offers an insightful and very honest depiction of the struggles of immigrant parents, whose hopes of moving to a country to provide their children with a better future, conflicts with the individualistic American culture in which they’ve grown up.
—Ann Tran





Preceded by:

A beautifully animated short about a girl on a mission to find a good bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup in America after tasting perfect pho on vacation in Vietnam.