{"id":329481,"date":"2026-05-23T15:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329481\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T15:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:27:10","slug":"i-could-not-be-silent-sacramento-nonprofit-ceo-shares-story-of-survival-and-healing-in-new-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/329481\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Could Not Be Silent\u2019: Sacramento Nonprofit CEO Shares Story of Survival and Healing in New Film"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Christine Nguyen has a bearing well-suited to the leader of a
\n nonprofit serving Asian and Pacific Islander survivors of
\n domestic violence. The CEO of My Sister\u2019s House, who has been in
\n her position since July 2025, has a talent for putting people at
\n ease, with a softly waving bob framing a calm but quickly moved
\n face. In a film that premiered at the Sacramento Asian Pacific Film
\n Festival<\/a>, she revealed another side of herself \u2014 and that her
\n connection to the mission of My Sister\u2019s House is not just
\n professional, but personal.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Sacramento City Councilmember Mai Vang, right, introduces the
\n Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival with co-founder Jason
\n Jong. (Photo by Elmer Javier, courtesy of SAPFF)\n<\/p>\n

The film \u201cAnd Then We
\n Rise<\/a>,\u201d directed by Gelli Pascual with Jeff Fong and produced
\n by My Sister\u2019s House and injury lawyer Anh Phoong, premiered as
\n the opening film of the 10th annual Sacramento Asian Pacific Film
\n Festival on Friday. The 22-minute documentary shares the survival
\n stories of two local women: Nguyen and Serena Vu, a recent
\n Sacramento State graduate who founded AnneitS, a nonprofit
\n advocating for sexual violence survivors, especially immigrants
\n and international students.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n City Councilmember Mai Vang, who is currently running for the
\n U.S. House of Representatives to represent California\u2019s 7th
\n congressional district, made introductory remarks before the
\n film, noting that she wished the film festival had existed when
\n she was growing up in south Sacramento. Seeing that kind of
\n representation on the screen might have helped her and her
\n friends and family avoid \u201cinternalizing poverty\u201d \u2014 the physical,
\n mental and life outcome consequences of believing one\u2019s poverty
\n is a personal failing.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Injury lawyer Anh Phoong, who co-produced \u201cAnd Then We Rise\u201d with
\n the nonprofit My Sister\u2019s House, introduces the film at the SAPFF
\n screening. (Photo by Elmer Javier, courtesy of SAPFF)\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a message that needs to be seen
\n by the entire community,\u201d producer Phoong said in her own
\n introductory speech. Phoong, well known around Northern
\n California for her eye-catching billboards and memorable slogan
\n (\u201cSomething
\n wrong? Call Anh Phoong<\/a>\u201d), drew enthusiastic applause. So did
\n Vang, whose grassroots campaign has led to her \u201cMai Vang for
\n Congress\u201d signs being an even more frequent sight than Phoong\u2019s
\n billboards around Sacramento. But the night\u2019s biggest round of
\n applause was for the stars of the documentary, Nguyen and Vu, who
\n joined the film\u2019s directors and Sacramento State criminal justice
\n professor Danielle Slakoff for a panel discussion after the
\n screening.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n Nguyen\u2019s face was shiny with tears under the bright stage lights.
\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there was one minute in the whole film when I
\n wasn\u2019t crying,\u201d she said. She said that she had been carrying her
\n trauma for nearly 40 years but knew she had to share it for the
\n sake of both her children and her organization.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI made the decision that on the 25th anniversary of My Sister\u2019s
\n House, I would share my story,\u201d she said. \u201cI could not be silent.
\n That would be betraying the mission of My Sister\u2019s House.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Vu, meanwhile, impeccably dressed in an ao dai borrowed from her
\n mother in Vietnam (so that she could attend the screening in
\n spirit), said she \u201cnever cries,\u201d but that making the film
\n encouraged her to face emotions that she had suppressed. \u201cThe
\n message is, if you can survive the impossible, you can survive
\n anything,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n The team behind the film \u201cAnd Then We Rise\u201d pose for photos after
\n the screening. (Photo by Elmer Javier, courtesy of SAPFF)\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n The film discusses both women\u2019s trauma \u2014 an attack in 2020 that
\n sent Vu into several years of guilt and depression, and five
\n years of continued abuse in Nguyen\u2019s adolescence \u2014 but does not
\n dwell on the details. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to focus on \u2018trauma porn\u2019 or
\n exploitation,\u201d said director Pascual. Instead, she wanted the
\n film to allow both women to highlight their own stories and how
\n they have given back to their communities.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n That story isn\u2019t over, the film team emphasized. They put
\n together the 22-minute version of the film in just a few weeks in
\n order to meet the film festival\u2019s deadline \u2014 which was,
\n generously, right before the showing. Their goal is to raise
\n funding for a feature-length version of the film. Information is
\n available at instagram.com\/andthenwerisefilm<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n The Sacramento Asian Pacific Film Festival continues through
\n Sunday with films shown in back-to-back blocks. Saturday\u2019s
\n program includes two blocks of films centered around representation<\/a>
\n and food
\n and farming<\/a>, respectively, capped off by a special screening
\n of the 2025 film \u201cRosemead<\/a>,\u201d
\n starring Lucy Liu as a terminally ill Chinese immigrant in the
\n San Gabriel Valley. Sunday\u2019s films include
\n short documentaries<\/a> about Asian and Pacific Islander
\n communities around the country, ending with a feature documentary
\n about the Auntie
\n Sewing Squad<\/a>, a collective formed to sew masks during the
\n COVID-19 pandemic that grew to provide mutual aid and resist
\n systemic inequality. Schedules and tickets are available at
\n 2026.sapff.org<\/a>.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

\n \u2013\n<\/p>\n

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