Join us for a special screening of the documentary New Wave followed by a live Q&A with director Elizabeth Ai on Tuesday, October 21 from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM at the USU Theatre.
New Wave is a vibrant coming-of-age documentary that explores identity, rebellion, and the power of music through the eyes of Vietnamese Americans navigating the underground New Wave scene in 1980s Southern California. Blending personal narrative and cultural history, the film captures a transformative moment for youth, diaspora, and self-expression.
Stick around after the screening for a conversation with filmmaker Elizabeth Ai, who will discuss the creative process, the film’s themes, and the real-life stories that inspired it.
Location: Cal State LA USU Theatre
Date: Tuesday, October 21
Time: 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
Space is limited. RSVP is required: https://sotunewwave.eventbrite.com
Elizabeth Ai is a Chinese-Vietnamese-American Los Angeles based Emmy award-winning producer. She writes, directs, and produces independent narratives as well as branded content for companies such as National Geographic, ESPN, and VICE. She produced documentary features; DIRTY HANDS: THE ART & CRIMES OF DAVID CHOE (2008), on the titled artist after his prison release and before his meteoric rise and A WOMAN’S WORK: THE NFL’S CHEERLEADER PROBLEM (2019), which examines wage theft and exploitation of the only visible NFL women. She’s a fellow of Berlin Talent Campus, Film Independent, Sundance, and Tribeca. Her film projects are supported by California Humanities, Firelight Media, Knight Foundation, and ITVS. She received her B.A. from the University of Southern California.
New Wave Documentary Trailer:
Our Q&A panel will also include special guests Oliver Wang and Phung Huynh.
Oliver S. Wang is a sociologist, writer, and DJ who has written since the mid-1990s on pop music, culture, politics, race, class, and gender for outlets like NPR, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Vibe, and the LA Times. He teaches at CSU-Long Beach and has published academic work including Legions of Boom (on Filipino American DJs), essays on Asian Americans and hip-hop, and is curating “Cruising J-Town,” a 2025 exhibition and forthcoming book about Japanese American car culture in Southern California. Outside of academia and writing, he’s an experienced DJ (radio, live events, podcasts), and lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
Phung Huynh is a Los Angeles-based artist and educator originally from Vietnam whose work spans drawing, painting, public art, and community engagement, and deeply explores themes of cultural perception, representation, displacement, assimilation, and identity among Vietnamese and Cambodian refugee communities. She often draws on personal and family histories, using symbols like pink donut boxes or personalized license plates to interrogate authenticity, beauty standards (including plastic surgery), and how culture is imported, deconstructed, and reconstructed in an immigrant’s experience. Huynh is also active in public art projects and academia: she serves as a professor of art, leads commissions, holds fellowships and awards, and develops community-engaged art practices that bridge institutional systems and marginalized refugee populations.