Screening: Nailed It | A Documentary about the Vietnamese Nail Industry


 Visual Studies     Oct 18 2019 | 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM HG 1070 McCormick Theater

Followed by a Q&A with director Adele Free Pham

In virtually every city, state and strip mall across the United States, women get their nails done in salons likely owned by Vietnamese entrepreneurs. How did this community come to dominate an $8 billion dollar nail economy?

Among others, the film features Mantrap, a nail salon chain which found its start in Los Angeles by business partners Olivett Robinson and Charlie Vo, who opened nine locations, demonstrating a small business model that was copied so frequently it became a part of Vietnamese culture—and the American standard for Asian nail salons in black neighborhoods.

This film appeals not only to Film & Media students interested in the craft of documentary filmmaking, but also those interested in migration and gendered labor, Asian American, Southeast Asian and Refugee stories. The film is the first of its kind, tracing a little known history, and taking viewers from Orange County to the Bronx to meet the diverse people and relationships behind this booming and enigmatic trade.

Free & Open to the Public

2PM on Friday, October 18
McCormick Theater
1070 Humanities Gateway, University of California Irvine

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