His work has often proven controversial; his 1987 film The Story of Kindness or How to Behave, which dealt with the legacy of the Vietnam War and the suffering of the Vietnamese and American people in that conflict, was banned for a time by the Vietnamese government. Nonetheless, his reputation as a gifted filmmaker resulted in the Vietnamese government commissioning him a decade later to create a followup to the film, The Sound of the Violin in My Lai.

This is one of a series of portraits I'm working on at the moment in Hanoi, Vietman.

All of the these picture were taken during a recent trip to the States.

The preparation for this festival is very elaborate. Fighting buffaloes must be carefully selected, well fed, and trained. These buffaloes must be between 4 and 5 years old, with a good appearance, a wide chest, a big groin, a long neck, an acute bottom, and bow shaped horns. The fighting buffaloes are fed in separate cages to keep them from contact with common buffaloes.