Sea Rose Ashes – Where sea and ash interlace, death returns to life.

S E A

ROSE

ASHES

A DOCUFICTION BY VU PHAM

Where sea and ash interlace, death returns to life.

Enter The Mystery

Synopsis

Sea Rose Ashes is a deeply personal lyrical documentary and a poetic reckoning. It is an intimate pilgrimage across continents, decades, and inner terrain. At its center is a mother’s death: murdered in 1983 by a man she once loved—a man who had once been like a father to her son.

Four decades later, that son, Vu Pham returns to the scene not only of the crime, but of origin. Tracing the shape of grief through his own exile and return, he exhumes his mother’s remains from a US cemetery and carries her ashes back to Vietnam, where her story began. Along the way, he seeks answers from the man who ended her life—and confronts the tangled inheritance of trauma, violence, survival, and retributive desire.

In Vietnam, he meets his mother’s sister, his aunt for the first time in 43 years. Pham slides into a bittersweet homecoming that will arouse the demons of silenced questions. Through a series of conversations with his aunt and her daughter, he must contend with the hidden moments of his early life that emerge from their enigmatic family history: a lattice of tragedies, misfortunes, superstitions, and arcane piety.

With meditative elegance and raw honesty, Sea Rose Ashes weaves the personal with the historical and the political with the philosophical. Through archival footage, present-day vérité, poetic voiceover, and intimate interviews, the film revives the oft ignored questions: What does it mean to honor and protect the dead? To reclaim memory? To suffer well?

This is more than a film – It’s a journey to seek justice, heal the wounds of the past, and
return to where it all began. Your support will help fund three intertwined missions:

Tax Deductible Donation

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE

After decades of silence, I have been pursuing dialogue with the man responsible for my mother’s death in the hopes of finding understanding, acceptance and closure. While our efforts have yet to bear fruit, we hold firm to the belief that, through persistence and open-mindedness, there will be a right time and a right way to break through. Thus, this process requires ongoing research, legal counsel, professional investigation, and outreach efforts in coordination with restorative justice and conflict resolution professionals.

PRODUCTION, POSTPRODUCTION, FESTIVAL SUBMISSIONS, COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS

With the return to Vietnam completed in early 2026, we have successfully retraced our refugee boat journey from the Mekong River out to the South China Sea. We have approximately 3 weeks of production remaining where we aim to interview the original legal and law enforcement team in my mother’s murder and film narrative sequences that explore the complexities of compassion and redemption. Upon completing production by early 2027, the remainder of the year will be devoted to postproduction, festival submissions, and community engagements aimed at serving those directly impacted by violence.

RESTORATIVE JUSTICE WORK AND SCREENINGS FOR INCARCERATED POPULATIONS

Through partnerships with organizations such as Portland Community Justice Partnership and Mend Collaborative, we plan to create a special cut of the film for screenings within correctional facilities and restorative justice programs. These screenings will accompany victim impact and surrogate engagements, using storytelling as a vehicle for dialogue, accountability, and reflection. This work will require ongoing creative development and collaboration with our restorative justice partners.