Hoang Curtis was born in the
Republic of Vietnam, and is the daughter of a former South Vietnamese air force major from Saigon and a former
Mekong Delta plantation heiress. On April 30, 1975, she was airlifted on the final civilian helicopter out of Vietnam at the end of the war. When she was nine, she wrote her first book on the Vietnam War. At the age of 12, she made her first documentary
The French Revolution. Hoang Curtis worked as an editor and writer for national magazines, including
Details,
Saveur,
House & Garden,
Garden Design, and
Spin. She also received funding from the
Independent Television Service (ITVS), and the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Hoang Curtis premiered
Oh, Saigon in March 2007 at the
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and received a nomination for Best Documentary. She appeared with Oliver Stone at the 2007 Austin Film Festival. She had her sold-out New York City premiere at the
Museum of Modern Art in 2008, where curator William Sloan called the film, "truly strong, human, and brave."
Oh, Saigon won the Best Film and Best Feature Documentary at the 42nd
Brooklyn Arts Council International Film Festival in 2008. It also screened at the
Vietnam International Film Festival. In 2011 and 2012, as part of the American Documentary Showcase, Hoang took the film to 16 countries, including Spain, Colombia, Zimbabwe and Vietnam. and was a 2022 Firelight Spark Fund recipient. She also received awards and grants from the
Sundance Institute and the
National Endowment of the Humanities. Her 2015 film, Scars for Eyes was partly funded by grants from the
Asian Women's Giving Circle and the
Ms. Foundation. In addition to
French Revolution, Hoang has worked on a number of short films:
A Requiem for Vegetables describes "the massacre of vegetables by a scary 1950s homemaker";
Good Morning, Captains features two Gen-Xers that are involved in a car accident; and
Agent depicts the impact of a CIA agent's life on his family. Hoang Curtis is a member of the non-profit film group,
Film Fatales. Hoang Curtis was an early board member of
V-Day, a top-ranked charity working to end violence towards women using performances of
the Vagina Monologues and other works. Hoang Curtis was also a character in
The Vagina Monologues play and book. In 2024–2025, Hoang Curtis was series producer on the Netflix series,
Turning Point: The Vietnam War, releasing/released April 30, 2025, the 50th anniversary of the
Fall of Saigon. ==Personal life==