Together

Directed & Produced by: Yasmin Mistry

Stage:
- Post Production
Location:
- New York, United States
Updated: July 7, 2026
Project Type:
- Feature
Project Style:
- Hybrid
Theme Subject:

Logline

30 years after family tragedy drove her into foster care, a Vietnam War refugee discovers the truth behind her mother's death, two sisters she never really knew, and a legacy of childhood abuse. Through the lens of sisterhood, TOGETHER explores healing and the path to empowerment by reclaiming one's own narrative.

Synopsis

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When the Vietnam War ended in 1975 it created a legacy of trauma for generations to come. Evacuated from Vietnam as a baby, Juliet grew up in the U.S with her Vietnamese mother and American soldier father. After her mother was killed in a car accident, her father’s PTSD and anger escalated. Her family fractured completely. Juliet, and her newborn sister Jen, grew up in separate foster homes, only finding each other again as adults. On the thirtieth anniversary of their mother's death, two shocking truths surface: their father was responsible for the car crash that killed their mother, and somewhere in Vietnam they had an older sister left behind at the Fall of Saigon. The war, it turns out, had taken far more than they realized.

Juliet and Jen travel to Vietnam to find their elder sister, Hong. They meet family, reconnect to their lost culture, and confront the harsh truths of their family’s past. Now they must come to terms with the complex forces that shaped their parents' actions. TOGETHER is an intimate documentary about family, sisterhood and healing. More than a personal story, the film is a window into the long-lasting impact of family separation and the legacy of war.

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Background

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Fifty years after the Vietnam War, TOGETHER traces three sisters' decades-long journey from trauma to healing. This film arrives at a crucial moment when record numbers of families worldwide face separation due to poverty, immigration policies, war, and inadequate social support systems. While headlines capture the initial shock of family separation, our film illuminates its profound, lifelong impact – a journey that unfolds not over days or months, but decades. Through intimate storytelling and artful animation, TOGETHER reveals how childhood trauma reverberates across generations while demonstrating that healing, though complex, is possible. Juliet and her sisters face abuse, abandonment, cultural displacement, and profound loss at a young age. Their experience mirrors countless others: today, 153 million children worldwide grow up without parental support, and 70% of the global population has experienced severe trauma. For Asian Americans, who are three times less likely to seek mental health support due to cultural stigma, seeing these Vietnamese American sisters break their silence is particularly powerful. Their story challenges the pressure to remain silent about family trauma, creating space for others to recognize their own experiences and seek help. By sharing these sisters' path to building loving families-by-choice, we aim to inspire a domino effect of healing, leading to stronger support systems and legal policies that keep families intact.

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Participants

Juliet

Participant

Juliet

A newly divorced single mother, now in her mid-forties, Juliet seeks to reconcile her past. Born in Vietnam to an American soldier and a Vietnamese mother, Juliet grows up in the U.S. where she endures years of abuse before running away from home and leaving behind her 6-month-old sister, Jen. A determined and resourceful teen, Juliet shuffl es between 15 different foster homes before fi nding her family by choice.
Her newfound stability gives her the space to go on a decades-long journey to begin the healing process, seek the truth, and confront the past.

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Jen

Participant

Jen

Now a married mother of seven in her thirties, Jen was raised as an only child until age 8 when abuse allegations led her into the Texas foster care system. A shy, quiet, girl, Jen felt abandoned and alone until she connected with Juliet, the older sister she wasn’t sure she had. Upon learning of Juliet’s struggles with infertility she donated her eggs, giving her sister the family she always wanted.

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Hong

Participant

Hong

A young grandmother in her early 50s, Hong lives in her husband’s modest family home in rural Vietnam but yearns for a support system of her own. Abandoned as a child by both her mother and father, Hong was raised in her maternal family’s ancestral home and used as child labor. She prays to one day
be reunited with her mother, who fl ed the country with an American soldier and her half-sister, Juliet, after the fall of Saigon.

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Style & Tone

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TOGETHER weaves 2D animation, verité footage, interviews and archival to tell an intimate story. Each sister's journey has its own visual language: • Juliet's story combines archival materials with raw charcoal illustrations • Jen's unfolds through soft pencil animation inspired by Glen Keane • Hong's employs painterly animation influenced by Southeast Asian art A warm color palette and carefully crafted soundscape - including unique musical instruments for each sister - unite these elements. Led by Emmy-nominated animator Yasmin Mistry, this multi-layered approach creates a fluid movement between past and present, honoring each sister's perspective while illuminating their shared path to healing.

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Team

Yasmin Mistry

Director & Producer

Team

Yasmin Mistry

Director & Producer

Yasmin Mistry is an Emmy-nominated animator and filmmaker. Her work has been displayed worldwide including showings at the United Nations and White House as well as at film festivals such as SXSW, Tribeca and DOC NYC. She is the recipient of grants from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Brooklyn Arts Council, Jerome Foundation, Riverside Sharing Fund, Artists Volunteer Center, and Harnisch Foundation, in addition to being a two-time finalist for the ITVS Diversity Development Fund. Yasmin is also the founder of the Foster Care Film & Community Engagement Project, which uses film and animation to give youth in foster care a platform through which to be heard. Her films have screened at over 140 film festivals and been nominated for more than 80 awards. When not creating media, Yasmin works as a programmer for the Anchorage International Film Festival, a screener for the Blackbird Film Festival, and a co-leader for the filmmaking collaborative Docshop.

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Stills

Our Ask

The film is currently in post-production. We are seeking finishing funds, distribution opportunities and additional impact partners.

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Project Website

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