Vietnamese documentary on Essex truck deaths wins US film fest prize

By Dang Khoa  &nbspDecember 22, 2021 | 03:15 am PT

A still from ‘One year on – The Essex Lorry Tragedy’. Photo courtesy of Vietnam News

‘One year on – The Essex Lorry Tragedy’ won first prize in the Documentary Short category at 2021 Erie International Film Festival.

The Vietnamese documentary surpassed the other shortlisted entry, Everything in Hardware by American Director Jamie Wright, to win the top prize last weekend.

Frank Leczner, Jr., festival director, congratulated Vietnam News for making a good documentary and expressed his pleasure in introducing the film to international audiences.

The documentary depicts the stories of those losing their loved ones in the container truck tragedy in the U.K. of 2019.

The deaths of the 39 Vietnamese made international headlines. The youngest were two 15-year-old boys and the oldest, a 44-year-old man.

The men, women and children suffocated to death in the back of a refrigerated truck in October, 2019 as they tried to make their way to Britain.

This is the 12th award the documentary has won after being screened in number of countries including India, Singapore and Bhutan.

2021 Erie International Film Festival took place over nine days from Dec.

10 in Pennsylvania.

It featured around 60 independent movies, documentaries, animation productions and music videos.