Conflict arises when Jessca (Tran Nguyen) embarks on a quest to find a home that once belonged to her mother’s family during pre-war Vietnam. The Vietnamese American mother-daughter duo, in their attempt to heal the rift between them, reenact and satirize scenes from celebrated Vietnam War films while depicting a diasporic reality. Artful, brilliant, and funny, The Motherload takes a closer look at what has been lost in war, what we find in the rubble, and how to hold on to what remains. 

Director Biography: Van Tran Nguyen, Alex Derwick

Gladthing Productions is a collaboration between Alex Derwick and Van Tran Nguyen. The partner duo takes great pride in their scrappy and humble beginnings having met in graduate school in 2013. They mix their formal fine art training with cinematic influences born from being weird little latchkey kids. In 2021 they released ERIE COUNTY SMILE, their first short-film effort, now available on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) via WHMT. Their first feature film THE MOTHERLOAD premiered in the fall of 2024.

Director Statement

We deeply believe in taking care of the dreams we had when we were young movie-goers, the ultimate goal we uphold in our creative work is to make our 15-year-old selves proud.