The small Texas city of Seadrift found itself in the national spotlight in 1979 after simmering tensions came to a violent and deadly head.
During the long grind of the Vietnam war, the fishing community of Seadrfit became home to a growing population of Vietnamese refugees. But amid the influx of refugees, came growing tensions between the immigrants and the local fisherman. The tensions culminated in the fatal shooting of fisherman Billy Joe Aplin in 1979 and the Ku Klux Klan usurping the tragedy as a rallying call for antiimmigrantion sentiment.
“Seadrift,” a documentary directed by Tim Tsai that will be screened at the upcoming San Marcos Cinema Club’s Lost River Film Festival, tells the story of how the two communities came into conflict and how they ultimately picked up the pieces in the intervening years.
