Ghost Tape #10 (Băng ghi âm ma)
by Sean David Christensen, MVA 2018
Created by the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, "Ghost Tape #10" was one of many tapes engineered as part of "Operation: Wandering Soul," a psychological operations campaign designed to intimidate and demoralize the North Vietnamese Army. These audio tapes would echo throughout war zones, their soundtracks consisting of actors portraying grieving family members, or voices from the dead, longing to be reunited with their loved ones. Exploiting the traditional Buddhist belief that the dead must be buried in their homeland, lest they wander the world aimlessly if denied a proper burial, these recordings were originally conceived of as attempts to weaponize an opposing culture's religious beliefs against them. More than fifty years removed from its wartime role, Ghost Tape #10, the film, focuses on unearthing and re-examining this weaponization of belief through the context of modern day Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American religious practice. Through dreamlike visualizations and interviews in Northern Vietnam and Los Angeles, reactions to this obscure piece of American propaganda lead to larger discussions about how modern day relationships between the living and the dead are carried out, and what truths, if any, still echo within this recording.
Running time: 28 minutes