Artists in Person A Tale of Love is a story of love set in contemporary San Francisco. A Vietnamese freelance writer, Kieu is researching an article on The Tale of Kieu, the Vietnamese national poem of love. "The poem itself is about the misfortunes of Kieu, a martyred woman who sacrificed her 'purity' and prostituted herself for the good of her family. Vietnamese people (both in Vietnam and in the diaspora) see the poem as a mythical biography of the 'motherland,' marked by internal turbulence and foreign domination; they recognize their country in the karma-cursed and passion-driven Kieu." (Trinh) Kieu searches for herself and the figure of the Vietnamese woman in the poem while the film also searches for love and desire contained in the poem, in Kieu's own life, and in the Vietnamese immigrant community. Acclaimed filmmaker, writer, and teacher Trinh T. Minh-ha creates in her first "dramatic narrative" a film that is as much about the narrative and performative space as it is about the characters. Commentary and insight about voyeurism, the viewer, the male gaze, and Trinh's role as director/writer are all set against the bright colors and elaborate urban setting of the film's production design.