ghost money .., by lawrence johnson

                                                 Ghost Money

                                            Synopsis of a Feature Documentary
                                                                   by
                                                       Lawrence Johnson


          " Ghost Money " is a feature-length, personal documentary telling the story of my tour of duty as soldier-cum-entertainer in Vietnam during its last stages in 1972.   The film will be framed as three interwoven threads.
           The first thread is the story of the Vietnam War told through archival footage and hundreds of feet of super-8 film that I shot in Vietnam during my tour there in 1972.   From this footage I edited a 20- minute fim called "R.V.N.", which made narrative use of " Kim Vân Kiều", the national epic poem from Vietnam about a girl who sells herself into slavery to save her father.   When I was there, it was a war of extraction.   Just about everyone believed the war had been a mistake and the U.S. was leaving the country.
            But Vietnam is  not the subject; it is merely the surreal backdrop of my own story, the second thread, which will be produced in hand-drawn animated scene s reminiscent of Asian comic books.   My story is a little different than most.   Instead of fighting, my job was in entertainment.   I worked for a branch of Special Services, producing shows to entertain the troops.   Actually, I did'nt really work much at all.   I was a defiant soldier.   I bunked in  a barracks in Saigon but spent most of my time in cafes and bookstalls in the lovely French-designed downtown.   I fell in love with a girl named Lan who turned out to be possessed by the ghost of a Buddhist nun.   For a time, I thought I would try to take Lan back to the U.S.  with me.   As far as I know, Lan is still in Vietnam.
          The third thread will be the video record of a trip back to Vietnam, looking up all the old haunts, comparing new and old societies and trying to find Lan in order to... well.  I don't know what.   This trip will reveal to those in the U.S. and elsewhere how vibrant, adaptable and far thinking the Vietnamese people are.  When I was in Nam, I rarely spent any time with the GIs who were supposed to be my friends. I hated their racism. their arrogance and their brutish lack of understanding.   I developed a love for the Vietnamese, who had suffered so much, but were always ready with a smile.   I do not know what will result from this trip.   I expect it will be emotionally over-powering for me.   Perhaps I will find some new understanding that will help others overcome any lingering anger or resentment.
            Why would  I want to revisit this strange and difficult period of my life as 22-year-old American draftee in a unnecessary war?   In America, Vietnam isn't on anybody's radar these days.   If it is mentioned at all, it is usually as part of an insidious revisionist program to rewrite history by those who still believe that the war was "winnable"--- whatever" winnable" means.   However, some  surmise that the subject will make a comeback as the Vietnam generation starts to die off.   What is important to me is that I came back from Vietnam changed.   May be it was growing up.   The wounds I received in Nam weren't physical.   They were psychological, even spiritual.   I feel as though I brought Lan's ghost back to the  States with me.   Perhaps it is one of " hungry ghosts"  of Buddhist folkore, a kind of angry parasite, sapping my strength and resolve.   No one comes put of a war uninfected.   The tragic error of the Vietnam War spawned a corruption in me.   I want to tell this tale.    I want to take that hungry ghost back to Nam and put it to rest.


Sample of Narration

 "I have nothing to say about the Vietnam War.   I don't know anything  about it.  I don't know any more than anybody else knows about it.  I have no special insight or understanding.  I haven't discovered  hidden secret  about it.   Yes, I was there in Vietnam.   I was there when the war was on.   But I have nothing to impart regarding the war,   the people, the politics, the reasons why, the reasons why not.   It happened. It happened to me, to lots of people.   Over three million Vietnamese died of it, some 58,000 Americans died of it.   But what does that really  mean, died ?   Killed in action, killed my accident, killed  by falling objects,  drowning, friendly fire, medical error.   Made dead.  Three million Vietnamese ,58,000 Americans.   For that matter, what does "Vietnamese" mean , what does   " American " mean ?   Now that they are dead, are they still Vietnamese or  American.   Or, are they are dead, are they still Vietnamese, still American? Or, are they only Vietnamese or American because their names appear on   the numerous, depressing memorials erected across our countries ?   Are they still anything?  The ones who got killed, are they still anything?   Are they dust ?   Sprit ? I dont'know.
         Their families might have missed them once, for a while, maybe they even miss them, miss them every day ... or perhaps not, perhaps they are relieved that they were killed because they were child abusers or wife-beaters or drug fiends.   The war also happened to millions who didn't die of  crippled, maimed, injured, left for dead, became missing or fatherless  And what of the thousands who got scared, depressed, who got addicted to drugs, who lost wives and girlfriends ? And  what about those who came home   killed themselves, or killed their families, or both, usually both , or those   died later, homeless, friendless, hopeless, in toothless, sputtering rage what about them ? I have nothing to impart about them . I really don't want to say anything about them, either the dead ones or the ones who died later, or the ones who are suffering still
.
             Everyone suffered, tha'ts the point.   Everyone.   They suffer still, the are left  .

            All I can do is tell my story.   I can show you what  I saw there.  I can tell you what I experienced, or remember I experienced, or what I believe I remember about my experience, filtered, of course, through language, through certain tendencies of mind, filtered through style, bias, fear of exposure, blockages of one  kind or another.   My story is not about war,  or death or geopolitics or whatever  you might infer from the telling of it.   My story is about  young man who went   to a far land and  had   an experience, an experience that changed him.
          In Vietnam, Buddhists go the temple or altar and burn pieces of joss paper with   little squares of foil pasted on them.  They believe that this paper is the medium of exchange in the afterlife. By burning these pieces of paper they believe they are sending money to their ancestors.   In South Vietnam they call these pieces of paper vàng mã, meaning , roughly translated : ghost money.  Some Buddhists believe that the burning of ghost money sustains one's ancestors  in the afterlife.   In exchange, the ancestors bring weath and good luck to the descendants. If the ancestors'  sprits are not provided for, they become  hungry. These hungry spirits cause all kinds of mischief.   They are vengeful and terrible.   To those who don't adhere to the tenets of traditional or folk Buddhism,  I assume this idea seems primitive --- the idea that there are   desperately hungry ghosts wandering the earth craving food and earthy delights,  causing mayhem and wreaking havoc.   But I hnow for a fact that hungry ghosts are real.   Forty years ago in Vietnam I encountered a one.    And that hungry ghost  haunts me still ."


                       Lawrence Johnson Bio


              Lawrence Johnson has been making films and videos professionally since 1983.   His work in history and culture has been distiguished through many awards, including two from the American Association of State and Local History ( Remembering Uniontown,  1985 and Steam Whistle Logging, 1987).   His programs for the exhibition    Encounters : Father DeSmet and the Indians of the Rocky Mountain West received the Golden Muse Award, the American Asssociation of Museum's recognition  for the best Audio / Visual program in 1995.   For the last ten years he a has written and produced   several programs about Native Americans and produced audio / visual progamming for major museums across the country.   He has recently completed programming for the Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the Oregon Historical Society's exhibit Oregon, My Oregon.   For  over ten years,  Johnson appeared as a
 performer and collaborator in the performance art group Thrinsgt, producing several full-  length theatrical performances, notable In Yo' Thringst ( Northwest Artits Worshop   1986), Slugthang ( The Media Project, 1987), and  Let them Eat Thringst ( Howling    Frog Gallery, 1992).  As a teacher he has produced several half-hour programs in high school residencies, including the award-winning educational sci-fi fantasy Alien Invaders     His documentary Hand Game ( 2000)  opened the American Indian Film Festival, and  played the Smithsonian's  Native American Film and Video and the Montreal Native film  Festival in June 2001.   His film tree possible scenes won  best dramatic short at the 2004 River Run International Film Festival in Salem, North Carolina, and Honorable Mention in the experimental category of the Kansas City Jubilee.   Video installations by  Johnson have appeared in several galleries in the Portland area.  Notably, Abandon  Place as part  of the Art Contemplates History series  produced by The Willamett Falls Heritage Foundation,   Johnson  recently  completed an Art-In-Schools video installation/performance funded by RACC at Beaverton Arts and Communications Magnet Academy.
          He just completed a presonal feature-length documentary called  Stuff, about   his father's death and all the stuff he left behind.   It received  the Oregon Media Arts Fellowship in 2008, previewed at the Northwest   Film and Video Festival and  won a special jury prize at the 2011 Florida and  Documentary at the Talking Pictures Festival . [] 

        LAWRENCE JOHNSON
                     ( USA )


                             www.lj-productions.com
                             www.stuffthefilm.com
                             https://vimeo.com/lawrencejohnson/videos