The award-winning film Dung Dot (Don’t Burn) by director Dang Nhat Minh will be screened at 14 US universities from this Wednesday onwards.

At the invitation of New York-based Institute for Vietnamese Culture and Education, Minh will also be present at all the screenings until November 20.

After the film is shown, the director will answer questions and discuss with audiences the film that is based on the war diary of a martyred resistance army medic, Dang Thuy Tram. The diary has been translated and published in 14 other countries and territories so far.

During the screening at New York University, Vietnam War veterans, brothers Robert and Fred Whitehurst, who kept Tram’s diary for 35 years before returning it to her family late 2005, and two American actors playing Fred in the film will also join the screening with Minh and professors from New York Film Academy.

Ivy League universities like Yale and Harvard are among the 14 universities that will host screenings of Dung dot.

Produced in 2008, Dung dot beat 22 other films to win the Audience Award at the Fukuoka International Film Festival held in Japan in September.

It has also been chosen as Vietnam’s entry for the 82nd Academy Awards next year.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien/Tuoi Tre