Vietnam: The Next Generation

In 1997 Sandy Northrop moved to Hanoi, Vietnam, accompanying her husband, David Lamb, a correspondent for the Los Angeles Times. That year, she began making Assignment Hanoi, her first program about Vietnam for PBS, telling the story of Pete Peterson, who had survived six years as a POW in the “Hanoi Hilton,” and was returning to Vietnam as the United States’ first Ambassador since 1975. Northrop produced, directed, and edited the program, as well as taking on a new role as cinematographer. Her second program, Vietnam Passage: Journeys from War to Peace highlighted the Vietnamese perspective on the war and its aftermath. Vietnam: The Next Generation is the final film in what has become a trilogy on modern Vietnam. Northrop has been a filmmaker since 1972, when she graduated from Stanford University’s master’s documentary program. From 1976 to 1985, she was a location manager and editor for the National Geographic Society on its acclaimed television specials, covering topics from endangered elephants and gorillas in Africa to the impact of the computer on our lives. Northrop set out on her own in 1987, producing How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?, the story of pianist Jimmy McKissic. Two years later she moved to Washington, D.C., and spent the next seven years producing the historical montages that have become the signature for PBS’s National Memorial Day and A Capitol Fourth live concerts. Since returning to Washington, D.C., Northrop has been developing a weekly segment on American editorial cartoons for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. The concept grew out of Drawn & Quartered, a book she co-authored in 1996 on two hundred years of American editorial cartoons and their impact on political and popular culture.