A documentary in production
Voices in Exile
The journalists behind Luật Khoa Magazine left Vietnam because staying meant prison or silence. This film follows their lives in exile in Taiwan and the work they refuse to stop doing.
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Ten minutes from the film.
A sample cut from the work in progress. This is the film your contribution helps finish.
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Vietnam’s rank in the 2026 World Press Freedom Index
That is the lowest in Southeast Asia and among the lowest anywhere. Independent journalism inside the country carries serious risk. Luật Khoa’s reporters do it from exile.
Source: Reporters Without Borders, 2026 World Press Freedom Index
About the film
Reporting on a country you cannot return to.
Made in collaboration with Luật Khoa Magazine. Shot on location in Taiwan. Slated for festival distribution in 2027.
Luật Khoa Magazine is an independent Vietnamese publication covering law, politics, and human rights. Its journalists work in exile, and Voices in Exile follows them in Taiwan, where they have rebuilt a newsroom and continue publishing for readers back home.
At the center of the film are Trịnh Hữu Long and Trần Quỳnh-Vi, two of the journalists behind Luật Khoa. Through their daily lives, it looks at what exile actually involves: the routine of reporting, the risk to family and friends, and the question of what it means to serve a country you cannot return to. It also follows the international press-freedom community that has stood with them, including Reporters Without Borders.
The film is now in post-production.
From the director
A note from the director
I was born in Vietnam and grew up in the United States, where I learned about human rights and freedom of the press as things a person could count on. The journalists in this film cannot count on them. They left their country in order to keep reporting on it, and they continue that work from Taiwan.
I think they are brave, and I think their story needs to be told. I also think press freedom is not someone else’s problem. When it is allowed to erode in one country, it becomes easier to erode everywhere, including in the democracies that assume it is secure. I have had the privilege of growing up with these rights. This film is one way of defending them.
Hải‑ý Lê, director
Where your contribution goes
Editing and post-production.
Voices in Exile is independently produced. Contributions go directly to the film’s director and producer, Hải‑ý Lê, and are spent on the work of finishing it.
Editing
Shaping the footage into a finished film.
Post-production
Color, sound, subtitles, and delivery for festivals in 2027.
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Every contribution, at any size, goes directly to making the film.
Supporter
$100
Your name in the credits of Voices in Exile as a Supporter.
Associate Producer
$1,000
An Associate Producer credit in the finished film.
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Payments go to Hải‑ý Lê, the film’s director and producer.
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