Forever Linda! 1996

Directed by Nguyễn Tân Hoàng

This short bittersweet video presents a series of daydreams (and nightmares) around the elusive and ubiquitous figure of Supermodel Linda Evangelista, lurking in the mind of an Asian American teenager on the verge of queerdom. Obsessional projections figure in scenarios like receiving obscene phone calls from Linda and impersonating Ms. E. on a Japanese talk show, interspersed between rehearsals of a coming out. The quintessential Supermodel, famous for changing her image radically from season to season, the Linda Phenomenon personifies the ideals of femininity in this culture and evokes the queer practice of passing from day to day. Backed by a soundtrack of French love songs sung by Vietnamese superstar-singer Thanh Lan, the tape poses questions about queer childhood narratives, cross-gender and cross-racial identification.