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William Mun

EN 391

Prof. Lemmon

5/15/18

Creative Profile: Derek Nguyen

Growing up in a conservative Korean-American household, I had two orders ingrained in

me: don’t pursue a career in the arts and marry a beautiful Korean woman. Naturally, I would

end up disobeying both of these commands. My “double minority” status is a daunting obstacle

only compounded by my familial and societal expectations to succeed in this filmmaking domain

I chose to pursue. As a result, my cultural and sexual identities have alway been at odds with

each other, although they have much in common. My Korean sensibilities tell me to

overcompensate for being seen as a weaker man, uphold the traditions that a second-generation

immigrant ought to know but doesn’t know, and work twice as hard for your parents who

sacrificed everything for you. My gay sensibilities tells me to do all of those things too but throw

glitter while you’re at it. Even with a compromise between these two identities, the industry that

I want to be a part of is still a ruthless one that feels like a members-only club for

heteronormative white men. You hear about all of these great American auteurs in the 21st

century, but only 3% of them are predominantly Asian men, regardless of how creative or

talented a filmmaker may be (Smith, Stacy L, et al., 4). There are few role models to look up to,

to be inspired by, to follow in their footsteps; however, there still are queer filmmakers of color

who defy the restrictions put on them.

For the past seventeen years, the Tribeca Film Institute has diligently worked to provide a

creative outlet for disenfranchised people to tell their stories. With its yearly held festival, the
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institute aims to feature stories from women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and

more. I had the honor of attending a yearlong fellowship at TFI where I had the even greater

honor of meeting Derek Nguyen, a gay Vietnamese American filmmaker, writer, and educator

who has been involved in the Tribeca circuit for years.

I recount my first reaction to even seeing Derek as disbelief; it was my first real

encounter with another queer Asian American filmmaker. On the first day of the Tribeca

fellowship, I found myself in a boardroom surrounded by thirteen other seemingly mute and

students. Despite the awkward tension in the air, Derek was the inviting force that pulled words

out of everyone’s mouths. I imagined Derek as being the overzealous college orientation leader

that would build up the “excitement” and “wonderful journey” this program would be; rather, he

was quiet when the students had to introduce themselves and their movie pitches. This silence

wasn’t suffocating, it was warm and welcoming, and this was supplemented by Derek’s focus on

what each student had to say.

As my fellowship at TFI drew to a close, I had the opportunity to interview Derek about

his creative growth and path to becoming an accomplished filmmaker. When I inquired about his

path to his career, I learned that Derek initially wanted to be a playwright. For his play Monster,

he was nominated an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2004, he was

encouraged to adapt his play into a film by the Sundance Institute, which subsequently led his

way into the film industry. Throughout his career, Derek has worked with accredited artists in

the filmmaking domain. He has collaborated with Timothy Linh Bui, a fellow Vietnamese

filmmaker, numerous times, and has worked with corporations such as CJ Entertainment to help

create and distribute his films (Ramos, “Geoffrey Fletcher”). He has garnered the attention of

the press multiple times, having been interviewed for many different publications. As a teacher,
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he has opened up opportunities for his students to access filmmaking equipment and even

knowledge that most do not have the privilege of having.

Now a prolific filmmaker, Derek serves as the Director of Operations and Creative

Affairs at Gamechanger Films, a company that finances films directed by women (“Derek

Nguyen”). Through this company, he has helped produce independent films such as Lovesong,

Buster’s Mal Heart, The Long Dumb Road, and more. Most recently he directed his first feature

film, The Housemaid, a dramatic horror film based on his grandmother’s experience in Vietnam

(Wixson, “Interview”). He is currently working alongside Academy-award winning screenwriter

Geoffrey Fletcher in adapting The Housemaid for American audiences in a more familiar setting

(Ramos, “Geoffrey Fletcher”).

Derek’s success as a filmmaker can be attributed to his cultural upbringing; he manages

to turn to his racial identity for his art. The Housemaid, for instance, is a culmination of his love

for his family’s stories and his desire to tell an engaging narrative. Past the formalities of my

interview, I was able to ask the real questions I was interested in regarding his racial and sexual

identity. Derek first recounted his immigration to the United States as a turbulent one; having to

flee Vietnam during the Fall of Saigon in 1975, an infant Derek and his family were rescued by

the American Navy. However, his transition to American culture would be another tribulation for

his family to face: “In our camp in Guam, we were sponsored by a Catholic church from

Jacksonville. We were Buddhists, so they helped us acclimate to American culture. I am not

Catholic, but I do remember the first image of America that I had was this huge crucifix with this

bleeding Jesus, and I remember thinking to myself that America is such a violent place.” The

irony of escaping a war to encounter more violence is an unfortunate but common experience

refugees face. Nguyen continued, “We were in Jacksonville, Florida, and we were the only
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Asians there. We were in an area where a lot of people’s sons were killed in the Vietnam War. I

remember going home and seeing ‘go home, gooks’ sprayed on the garage. It was a different

consciousness at the time, and the war was very dividing for the country.” Unwarranted

assimilation and racial tension would be a significant part of Derek’s childhood, but these

hurdles wouldn’t stop him from achieving success even at a young age.

According to psychologist Doris B. Wallace’s “contextual frames” for the development

of one’s creativity, “The fourth context concerns the subject’s families--the family of origin and

the current family--and their role in the development and support of the subject’s creative life”

(Wallace, 36). Despite the isolation that Derek faced starting as an infant from his community, he

found support from his parents who facilitated his creative growth early on. Enrolling him in

painting classes and allowing him to engage in sports and the arts, Derek’s parents would wind

up raising a greatly ambitious child. In high school, Derek was a well rounded student, being the

captain of his school’s football team and being actively involved in student government and

theater. He tackled what seemed like more than what a teenager could chew, similar to most

Asian American experiences. Eventually, he attended UC Santa Barbara for Dramatic Arts and

later attended the Film Producing Certificate Program at NYU.

In college, Derek came to realize his homosexuality. Despite being able to comfortably

date and actually socialize among other queer people of color, he noted that his sense of isolation

in society “is compounded by being a POC and a queer person.” As he came out in a time where

homosexuality was more taboo, Derek faced opposition from his friends and family. Despite the

tribulations, this experience would develop his creative mindsets, as one’s psychological

development “evolves from a failure to reach heterosexual capacity in the patterns dictated by

society, and this kind of failure in making conformity work underlies all creative individuality”
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(Rosenfels, 137). In failing to conform, Derek found a way to express himself that was openly

and uniquely him. For homosexual men, they “live in a psychological world where independent

growth always carries the threat of sexual unorthodoxy. If men accept their homosexual

capacities as an aspect of their need to live in an expanding world… they must continue to

pursue the growth patterns on which their deviancy is based” (Rosenfels, 99). Derek managed to

find others who understood him without even needing to speak, and he integrated himself into a

safe network among other gay women of color. As he continued to explore himself and the

LGBTQ community, Derek not only grew creatively but he grew as a person as well: “The more

that I was open about myself, my creativity was better; I felt more creative freedom.”

Derek’s experience as a gay Asian immigrant growing up in a time where all three of his

identities led to some sense of exclusion would strengthen his love for himself. According to

anthropologist John Ogbu, he argues that “many immigrants who are looked down upon manage

to turn their distinctive heritage into a kind of ethnic armor. “ As a result, immigrants establish a

sense of collective dignity, a self pride, that empowers them to cope psychologically as they face

exclusion and discrimination (Zhou, 145). Contrarily, those who internalize society’s standards

and imposed inferiority as part of their racial identity tend to have an oppositional outlook

toward mainstream society. However, a balance between one’s cultural and societal identity may

facilitate more creative ideas. Derek himself noted, “Being Vietnamese American still lives in

my consciousness, and when I went back to Vietnam to film my film, I was looking for a new

sense of home, but going there you realize that America is your home. In the end, I decided to

come back to America.” Political scientist Francis Fukuyama states that the values Asian

immigrants carry over from the old country expedite their integration into American society,

improving it as well: “Asian culture puts a high value on strong families, dutiful children,
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delayed gratification, education, hard work, discipline, respect for others and moral obligation to

the community--virtually all qualities that Americans prize and are now arguably losing” (Zhou,

147). The emphasis his family had on his work and education has led Derek to be the creative

director he is today. When asked about the influence his racial identity has on his mindset, Derek

stated, “Being in an ethnic minority can be difficult especially at a time when these issues

weren’t in the national consciousness. I have decided that I have to not only cherish my heritage,

but I want to celebrate it and it’s extremely important for me to identify as a person of color.”

Dr. Shelley Carson defines divergent thinking as “a type of cognition in which you see

many possible answers to questions and problems;” Derek believes one must be a divergent

thinker in order to even be an artist (Carson, 124). Aside from his background, Derek’s work

ethic has been the foundation of his career. As he grew as an artist, his tenacity compensated for

the greater obstacles he gradually faced, opening new doors for him in this incredibly

competitive domain: “I’ve shifted my creative energies to other aspects of filmmaking and

theater creation. Now not only do I write, but I also produce, raise money, and work with other

film technicians and directors. As far as directing, I have to work with actors, crew members, and

I shoot things. I’ve expanded the definition of what I want to do in film.” Derek’s passion for

film drove him to think differently in various facets of filmmaking; there is no limit for him as

long as the project still bears weight and significance to him. Following Dr. Carson’s

“CREATES” model, Derek could be represented by the “connect” and “transform” mindsets, as

his eventful past has led him to be the productive visionary he is today. For example, The

Housemaid told the story of Derek’s grandmother, but it also conveyed a greater narrative about

colonialism in Vietnam. When discussing the creative mindset and intention in the making of

this film, he stated, “That was the combination, there was this rage [toward colonialism] that I
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wanted to tell people about, but at the same time it was a very personal story about my

grandmother and the love that she experienced when she was a housemaid.“ Derek utilized his

disdain towards prejudice into making a heartfelt film, and he saw the similarities that the real

narrative and a gothic horror one could share.

As Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi has stated, “In order to want to introduce novelty into a

domain, a person should first of all be dissatisfied with the status quo” (Csikszentmihalyi, 15).

Derek Nguyen succeeds in channeling the adversity he faces as a queer Asian filmmaker into

creating wondrous stories through his sheer passion and commitment to his work, family, and

himself. His success and creative development in a domain dominated by straight, white men is

inspirational not only for me but for other marginalized artists alike.
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Works Cited:

Carson, Shelley. Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imaginations,

Productivity, and Innovations in Your Life. Jossey-Bass, 2010.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihalyi. “A Systems Perspective on Creativity.” Handbook of

Creativity. Ed. R. Sternberg. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 313-35.

“Derek Nguyen - Director of Operations & Creative Affairs.” GAMECHANGER FILMS,

gamechanger-films.com/derek-nguyen-director-of-operations-creative-affairs/.

Ramos, Dino-Ray. “Geoffrey Fletcher To Write Remake Of Vietnamese Horror Pic 'The

Housemaid'.” Deadline, 1 Feb. 2018, deadline.com/2018/02/geoffrey-fletcher-the-

housemaid-remake-derek-nguyen-vietnamese-horror-1202275951/.

Rosenfels, Paul. Homosexuality, the Psychology of the Creative Process. Ninth St. Center,

1989.

Smith, Stacy L, et al. “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair? Gender, Race, & Age of Film

Directors Across 1,000 Films from 2007-2016.” Annenberg.usc.edu, Annenberg

Foundation, 30 Jan. 2017,

annenberg.usc.edu/sites/default/files/2017/04/06/MDSCI_Inclusion

%20_in_the_Directors_Chair.pdf?platform=hootsuite.

Wallace, Doris B., and Howard E. Gruber. "Studying the Individual: The Case Study

Method and Other Genres." Creative People at Work: Twelve Cognitive Case

Studies. New York: Oxford UP, 1989. Print. 25-44.

Wixson, Heather. “Interview: THE HOUSEMAID Writer/Director Derek Nguyen

Discusses the Real-Life Inspirations Behind His Gothic Romance.” Daily Dead, 16
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Feb. 2018, dailydead.com/interview-the-housemaid-writer-director-derek-nguyen-

discusses-the-real-life-inspirations-behind-his-gothic-romance/.

Zhou, Min. “Assimilation, the Asian Way.” Ed. Tamar Jacoby. Reinventing the Melting

Pot: The New Immigrants and What It Means To Be American. Basic Books, 2004.