Tailor’s tale custom fit for local filmmaker Acclaimed short film stitches together lives of two Vietnamese immigrants in Winnipeg By: Ben Waldman Posted: 5:53 PM CDT Wednesday, May. 22, 2024

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This article was published 22/05/2024 (790 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For filmmakers who don’t live inside a Hollywood script, elevator pitches are rarely made within the confines of an Otis. Last March, Quan Luong’s was tossed out across a table at Pho Kim Tuong restaurant on Ellice Avenue.

The recipient wasn’t a smarmy studio executive in a bespoke $3,000 suit. He was, however, more than capable of sewing a three-piece from scratch at his workshop a few blocks west of the restaurant.

Luong wasn’t asking for seed money, but for participation, because, at least on paper, veteran tailor Tam Nguyen’s life was the perfect material for the documentary treatment — a story of daring immigration, Old World craftsmanship and handmade success.

The proprietor of Tam Custom Tailors didn’t take much convincing before he developed trust for his lunchmate.

“I said, ‘Sure, why not?’” the 67-year-old recalls with a laugh. “I said, ‘You can do a good job?’ and he said, ‘Yes.’”

Soon, Luong was inside the shop, camera in hand, as Nguyen threaded the needle of his personal narrative, which, like the filmmaker’s, began in Vietnam and, through fateful circumstance wound up in Winnipeg.

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Luong, 26, grew up in Ho Chi Minh City, moving from his home country to study engineering at the University of Manitoba. After four months plodding his way through introductory physics and mathematics courses, he decided he no longer wanted to pursue the same career as his father, his uncles and his grandfather. “My heart wasn’t in it,” he says.

“When I came to Winnipeg, I was still 17, so I had to stay with Canadian hosts for a few months,” he says. “The guy I was staying with was an insurance broker and he was working on a video presentation. He needed a bit of help, and I knew a little about video editing.”

After five minutes, Luong had finished editing the presentation and the broker gave him resounding praise: “You could do this for a living.”

‘You could do this for a living’

After switching his major to film studies, Luong attended workshops with the Winnipeg Film Group and started making event recap videos, building up an impressive personal reel. That led to his hiring by Prolex Media, a fledgling digital advertising firm for which he shot mostly real estate videos and corporate shoots for luxury car retailers.

Opportunities piled up and Luong learned to say yes. He was asked to do camera assistance on directors Milos Mitrovic and Fabian Velasco’s 2019 feature Tapeworm. When the Winnipeg-shot film finished production, Luong checked in with cinematographer-editor Markus Henkle. That led to four years of employment with local company Farpoint Films in a variety of capacities.

By 2022, Luong had worked on dozens of local productions and had a feature-length documentary — Seeking Fire, co-directed by Ian Bawa — under his belt.

In search of his next project, Luong was approached by eventual co-producer Meegwun Fairbrother, who suggested he take a look at the story of Tam Nguyen.

As Fairbrother predicted, the two men had an immediate connection. Nguyen handed Luong his unpublished memoir entitled Lucky Man. “I read it, and then we were off to the races,” he says.

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While Luong grew up in the long shadow of the Vietnam War, Nguyen’s youth coincided with some of the conflict’s darkest moments.

One of nine children, Nguyen grew up in a village in the Quang Ngai province, the same area where the My Lai massacre of 1968 was perpetrated by the American military. As the war continued, Nguyen grew disillusioned; at 12 years old, he began thinking of his future career.

A brother-in-law was a tailor, so Nguyen became his apprentice, working under his supervision until 1975, when the war ended after two decades of destruction.

Over the ensuing 20 years, nearly one million Vietnamese people left the country as “boat people,” travelling by sea to find a better life elsewhere. On April 30, 1980 — the five-year anniversary of the fall of Saigon — Nguyen was one of 17 passengers on a tiny sailboat that arrived five days later in Malaysia, where he lived in a refugee camp.

A safe arrival was not guaranteed, but the weather co-operated, and by October 1980, Nguyen was bound for North America.

Arriving alone in Winnipeg, he spoke no English, and worked for six months in the TanJay clothing factory. For six years, he worked in various tailor shops across the city before opening his own outpost at Ellice and Langside in 1986.

Two years later, Nguyen moved to his current spot, where he’s made custom dresswear and suits for common citizens, Winnipeg Jets and the Hollywood set, including actors Samuel L. Jackson and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.

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Luong’s short documentary, Tailor Made, tells this story in Nguyen’s own words, capturing the tailor’s craftsmanship and sense of humble fortune.

“As a storyteller I’ve always been fascinated with the craft of filmmaking, and being in my position it feels like the perfect blend of artistry and (technical work),” Luong says. “Tam’s life is very similar. His tailoring station looks a lot like where films used to be edited on celluloid.”

Living up to the requirements of Tam’s trade, the 12-minute film is well-cut and well-worn, with Luong — who also served as director of photography — depicting Nguyen in the meditative, rigorous act of sartorial creation. It’s a measured piece of storytelling that was recognized this year with a nomination for best cinematography in a short documentary by the Canadian Society of Cinematographers.

“Right now, we’re hoping to get it in front of as many eyes as possible,” says Luong, who credits Nguyen’s story for helping him better understand his home country and reframe the story of those who left after the war. “It’s gotten a lot of good feedback.”

Including from Tam Nguyen himself.

“It’s short, but he got almost everything in,” he says. “I feel good.”

No alterations needed.

Tailor Made screens Sunday afternoon at the WAG’s Ilipvik venue as part of the FascinAsian Film Festival’s sold-out Yin and Yang shorts program. For the full FascinAsian schedule, from Friday to Sunday (May 24-26), visit fascinasian.ca.