Taking Root: Fundraiser & Screening

April 19, 2025 (12 – 3PM)

Saint Paul

Stories have the power to heal and transform our world. Taking Root is a story that is needed now more than ever to shed truth to the stories of refugees and immigrants. As the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Wars in Southeast Asia unfolds, we must reclaim our stories and challenge the racist and xenophobic narratives that have been long imposed on us. The wars never ended in 1975 – the war continued in the form of violence from the carceral and deportation machine. We need to show up for the movement to demand an end to the systems that criminalize, detain, and deport our loved ones. 

MN8 is proud to be a partner of the Taking Root Tour and will be bringing this special docuseries to the Twin Cities. Join us for this special premiere and grassroots fundraiser towards the fight to end detention and deportation. Taking Root captures the history of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in Philadelphia from 1975 to 1995. Throughout the docuseries, we’ll witness the real-life stories of the intergenerational impact of structural violence and the power of Southeast Asian refugees resisting and rebuilding in America. Bringing this documentary here to Minnesota is a homecoming and homage to our own stories and honoring our state’s unique history of Southeast Asian refugee resettlement. 

Watch the Taking Root Trailer here

Taking Root is a story told by our community, for our community. Our goal is to center the vulnerability and resilience of our refugee stories, nurture our intergenerational power, and continue to challenge and change the systems that continue to harm us. Since 2002, over 17,000 Southeast Asians have had final removal orders. Southeast Asian families continue to face injustice and displacement at alarming rates. At MN8, we are committed to fighting for Southeast Asian liberation, for families to stay together, and to return justice and dignity to our people. Join our movement by uplifting Southeast Asian stories and investing in liberatory futures.

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ABOUT TAKING ROOT

Taking Root was created by VietLead and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2023. In partnership with the Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN), a national screening tour of Taking Root and the Southeast Asian Relief and Responsibility (SEARR) Campaign launched this year. The SEARR Taking Root will travel to cities across the U.S. and the globe to foster community healing and advocate for US accountability for the environmental and humanitarian harms of the wars in Southeast Asia and an end to deportation. MN8 is proud to be a network member of SEAFN and a long-time partner of VietLead, where we have collectively worked together to end Southeast Asian deportations and fight for the conditions that allow our people to thrive and live freely. 

WHAT TO EXPECT

Join us for a day full of reclamation, community empowerment, and healing through Southeast Asian storytelling. Together, we’ll be showing the first two episodes of the new docuseries, hearing from a panel of community advocates and impacted individuals, and sharing resources to keep each other safe. As we navigate the extremely anti-immigrant political landscape and resist the racist systems at play, our antidote is building community and people power.

12:00 PM Doors Open: Check-in, mingling, and light lunch

12:45 PM Program & Screening Begins

2:15 PM Panel & Discussion

3:00 PM Closing

*This is a ticketed event, RSVP is required.

WHY THIS MATTERS

2025 marks 50 years of Southeast Asians in Minnesota, 50 years since US military intervention in Southeast Asia, and 50 years of continued failed refugee resettlement. U.S. militarism and the U.S. immigration system continue to traumatize and displace our people. Today, our communities live with the impacts of the mass carpet bombings, ecocide, destabilization, and more.  

2025 also marks another presidential term that is openly hostile and has already repeatedly attacked the civil and human rights of refugees and immigrants. On the horizon are plans for denaturalization, ending birthright citizenship, reducing and eliminating family-based immigration, and the orchestration of massive militarized raids, deportations, and concentration camps across the nation. Our people are facing a humanitarian crisis. This cycle of displacement and trauma is alarming and unacceptable. 

Our communities are not safe. Our communities have never been safe. “American Exceptionalism” and the “model minority myth” has never kept us from harm, and have instead, actively kept us from coming together to create solidarity and change. Dominant narratives about the “Vietnam War” have always inaccurately represented our experiences, leveraging dangerous U.S. propaganda, and waging hate towards refugees and immigrants. Taking Root challenges these dominant narratives. We must reframe our histories with truth, resistance, and resilience. We must actively shift dominant narratives in our communities, reclaim our power, mobilize, and build power to create liberatory futures.

We know that the Southeast Asian Dream extends beyond the American Dream – our dreams are rooted in joy, love, and resistance. For years, we have protected each other and created refuge through our community. Now, more than ever, is the time to stand up together and fight back. Our work of narrative shift is grounded in community care, revealing erased histories, and building worlds where all people can live with joy, freedom, and dignity. 

COVID-19 GUIDELINES

If attendees have any of the symptoms listed below within the past 10 days, or if attendees have been exposed to an individual who has tested positive for COVID or demonstrated/ reported any of the symptoms within the past 3 days, we ask that attendees do NOT attend an event:

  • Fever or chills
  • Cough
  • Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
  • New loss of taste or smell
  • Sore throat
  • Fever exceeding 100.3 degrees
  • Vomiting 

MASKING

Masking is required except during eating and drinking. Masks will be available and provided by MN8.

CONTACT TRACING

All attendees must register for the event and provide an email address for contact tracing purposes. MN8 will provide paper sign-in for folks who are unable to register online. We ask attendees to self monitor after an event. 

If an attendee tests positive for COVID 3 days after an event, we ask that they inform us as soon as possible or as soon as they are able to. We will send an email out to all event attendees if this happens.