HRW IFF: Regret to Inform

A co-presentation with

Nine years in the making, and nominated for a 1998 Academy Award, Regret to Inform is filmmaking and storytelling at its finest. Filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn, a Vietnam War widow, takes us to a Vietnam we have never known. As she boards a train in Hanoi, traveling through the lush countryside to the physical site of her husband's death in the small farming town of Que Sanh, Ms. Sonneborn presents an unforgettable group of war widows, from both North and South Vietnam and the U.S. From the Vietnamese women, whose culture seeks to bury personal suffering, to the U.S. women whose culture has collectively buried this tragedy, the filmmaker manages to connect with all on the most intimate level, drawing out in singular interviews a haunting and decisive clarity that illuminates the soul of emotion, memory and loss. Stunning archival footage adds further layers to this unique perspective of a shared bond between women from opposite sides who have survived the emotional aftermath of personal loss in Vietnam. Xuan Ngoc Evans, one of the women featured in the film, will attend screenings.

Barbara Sonneborn

Born in Chicago in 1944, artist Barbara Sonneborn has worked as a photographer and in other media, including sculpture and set design for 26 years. She designed and directed all visual aspects of Jean-Claud Van Itallie's play Bag Lady, which was produced in New York at the Theater for the New City. She photographed and directed the use of projections in The White Buffalo produced at Princeton University. Her artwork has been exhibited in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and can be seen in New Directions in Photography, a book edited by then New York Metropolitan Museum of Art curator of photography Weston Naef. Her awards include a 1998 Rockefeller Film/Video/Multi-Media Fellowship, the International Documentary Association Award for Distinguished Achievement/ABC News Video Source Award for the Best Use of Archival Footage in 1998, and two National Endowment for the Arts grants. Regret to Inform is Sonneborn's first film. Among her future plans are writing a book about the widows of the Vietnam War, and further films about the terrible price of war.

Regret to Inform will be theatrically released by Artistic Licence Films on June 25.

Preceded by
Spotlights on a Massacre: Fernando Trueba (4 min)

Fri June 11, 8:45 pm; Sun June 13, 7:00 pm; Wed June 16, 6:30 pm
(a reception for the filmmaker will follow the Wed June 16, 6:30 pm screening)

	Director:	Barbara Sonneborn
	Producer:	Barbara Sonneborn/ Janet Cole
	Cinematography:	Daniel Reeves/ Nancy Schiesari/ Emiko Omori
	Editor:	Lucy Massie Phenix/ Ken Schneider
	Distributor:	Artistic License Films
		Contact: Sandy Zeig
		250 W. 57th St, Ste 606, New York, NY 10107
		Tel: (212) 265-1924
		Fax: (212) 262-9299
		e-mail: artlic@aol.com
	Language:	English and Vietnamese with English subtitles
	Country of Production:	USA, 1998
	Running Time:	72 minutes (35mm, documentary)



		A co-presentation with Nine years in the making, and nominated for a 1998 Academy Award, Regret to Inform is filmmaking and storytelling at its finest. Filmmaker Barbara Sonneborn, a Vietnam War widow, takes us to a Vietnam we have never known. As she boards a train in Hanoi, traveling through the lush countryside to the physical site of her husband's death in the small farming town of Que Sanh, Ms. Sonneborn presents an unforgettable group of war widows, from both North and South Vietnam and the U.S. From the Vietnamese women, whose culture seeks to bury personal suffering, to the U.S. women whose culture has collectively buried this tragedy, the filmmaker manages to connect with all on the most intimate level, drawing out in singular interviews a haunting and decisive clarity that illuminates the soul of emotion, memory and loss. Stunning archival footage adds further layers to this unique perspective of a shared bond between women from opposite sides who have survived the emotional aftermath of personal loss in Vietnam. Xuan Ngoc Evans, one of the women featured in the film, will attend screenings. Barbara Sonneborn Born in Chicago in 1944, artist Barbara Sonneborn has worked as a photographer and in other media, including sculpture and set design for 26 years. She designed and directed all visual aspects of Jean-Claud Van Itallie's play Bag Lady, which was produced in New York at the Theater for the New City. She photographed and directed the use of projections in The White Buffalo produced at Princeton University. Her artwork has been exhibited in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and can be seen in New Directions in Photography, a book edited by then New York Metropolitan Museum of Art curator of photography Weston Naef. Her awards include a 1998 Rockefeller Film/Video/Multi-Media Fellowship, the International Documentary Association Award for Distinguished Achievement/ABC News Video Source Award for the Best Use of Archival Footage in 1998, and two National Endowment for the Arts grants. Regret to Inform is Sonneborn's first film. Among her future plans are writing a book about the widows of the Vietnam War, and further films about the terrible price of war. Regret to Inform will be theatrically released by Artistic Licence Films on June 25. Preceded by Spotlights on a Massacre: Fernando Trueba (4 min) Fri June 11, 8:45 pm; Sun June 13, 7:00 pm; Wed June 16, 6:30 pm (a reception for the filmmaker will follow the Wed June 16, 6:30 pm screening)