HIGHER LEARNING
The ESPN 30 for 30 doc “Be Water,” on the life of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, will air June 7. Director Bao Nguyen writes about how Lee prepared to fight anti-black racism.
Bao Nguyen is an LA-based filmmaker whose past work has been seen in the New York Times, HBO, NBC, Vice, ARTE, and PBS, among many others. The first documentary feature he produced, Once in a Lullaby, premiered at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival and was nominated for a Gotham Independent Film Award. Afterwards, he co-produced Where Heaven Meets Hell, which received a Special Mention Award at the One World International Human Rights Film Festival for being a documentary that has made an exceptional contribution to the defense of human rights. In 2014, he was the producer and cinematographer of Nuoc 2030, a feature narrative set in near future Vietnam. Live From NewYork!, celebrating 40 years of Saturday Night Live, was Bao’s feature documentary directorial debut. It opened the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast nationally in primetime on NBC. His latest directorial effort, Be Water, a documentary about cultural icon Bruce Lee, world premiered in competition at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and will be broadcast on ESPN’s 30 for 30 series.