California Story Fund
Vietnamese Indigenous Religion Finds a New Home in California
University of Southern California,
Center for Religion and Civic Culture
Los Angeles
Project Director: Janet Hoskins
Documenting a little-known religion from Vietnam
Caodaism is an indigenous religion founded in Vietnam in 1926 with about 6 million followers worldwide today, including thousands of people in California.
The California Story Fund grant will allow the completion of a 50-minute documentary film about Caodaism and its role in Vietnamese culture. Called “The Left Eye of God: Vietnamese Caodaism Finds a New Home In California,” the film is based on Hoskins’ ethnographic work attending services and youth group meetings and conferences, and collecting life histories.
Once completed, the film will be screened at venues in Garden Grove, Westminster and Los Angeles, where many Vietnamese Americans live. Some of the storytellers from the film will appear at the screenings to answer questions.
“Because Caodaism mirrors the recent experiences of Vietnamese culture, both in the home country and in diaspora, this film will provide an excellent platform for community discussion of the importance of immigrant religion to California,” Hoskins said. “I think it will also spur conversation about the Vietnamese experience of war, immigration and cultural change.