Following 12 U.S. screening events, the documentary returns the Duong family’s story to San Francisco, where they began rebuilding their lives after escaping Vietnam.

OAKLAND, Calif., Oct. 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The King of Trash, a 72-minute documentary tracing David Duong and his family’s journey from their escape from Vietnam by boat to rebuilding their lives in San Francisco and establishing businesses in the United States and Vietnam, has been named a finalist at the 13th San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival. Director Errol Webber and producer David Duong are scheduled to attend the November 1 red carpet and awards ceremony at Herbst Theatre in San Francisco.

The festival recognition brings the film back to the city where the Duong family arrived as refugees in 1979. Before David Duong founded California Waste Solutions, relatives shared apartments in the Tenderloin and collected discarded bottles, cardboard and paper to support the household. That period, along with the family’s experiences during the Vietnam War and its subsequent return to Vietnam, forms the central story of the documentary.

“We are thrilled that the movie has been recognized by such a prestigious film festival,” said California Waste Solutions Founder & CEO David Duong. “We’ve received tremendous feedback which has been very touching from people all over California who have said how it has impacted them in different ways. Now it’s an honor to be a finalist at the San Francisco New Concept Film Festival.”

The documentary has been shown at 12 screening events across the United States, drawing audiences in San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, Orange County, Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., Orlando, Hayward, Dublin, San Jose, and Emeryville. Together, the 12 events have drawn more than 5,000 attendees, bringing The King of Trash to audiences across the country. The documentary was also selected for the 2026 Red Rock Film Festival in Utah.

From the Fall of Saigon to a New Beginning in America

The documentary begins in April 1975, when the Duong family lost its paper-recycling business in South Vietnam following the fall of Saigon. David Duong’s father, Jim Thu Tai Duong, was known in Vietnam as Vua Rac, or “the King of Trash,” the name that inspired the film’s title. According to the family account presented in the documentary, 23 relatives escaped Vietnam aboard a small boat. Interviews, archival footage and reenactments filmed in Vietnam recount the family’s departure and the perilous journey that followed.

“We almost died out there in the ocean. We had only one choice: survive,” David Duong says in the documentary.

The family spent time in a refugee camp in the Philippines before reaching the United States in 1979. In San Francisco, more than a dozen relatives shared apartments in the Tenderloin. Younger family members attended school during the day, while relatives collected bottles, cardboard and paper, sometimes working at night. The work drew on the recycling trade the family had known in Vietnam, but they also had to learn a new language and find work and customers in an unfamiliar city.

Jim Thu Tai Duong taught his family that nothing useful, and no person with potential, should be thrown away. “There is honor in every kind of honest work,” he told his family.

David Duong‘s years in San Francisco included discrimination and the difficulties of entering business as an immigrant. The film recounts those experiences through David Duong’s own account and examines how they influenced his decision to establish a company of his own. The business grew from the family’s knowledge of recycling and years spent earning a living from recovered materials.

David Duong’s Journey to Building California Waste Solutions

In 1992, David Duong founded California Waste Solutions in Oakland, beginning with used trucks. The company expanded from recovered-materials work into recycling collection, processing and material recovery for residential, commercial and municipal customers. According to company figures, California Waste Solutions serves more than 343,000 customers in Oakland and San Jose and operates several Bay Area recycling facilities.

The documentary traces David Duong’s journey from collecting recyclables alongside his family on the streets of San Francisco to building California Waste Solutions into a major recycling and environmental services company. It also examines the years of hard work, discrimination, business challenges and family responsibilities that shaped his career, showing how the experience of starting over as refugees in America became the foundation for his success as an entrepreneur.

Decades after fleeing Vietnam, the family returned to develop environmental services operations near Ho Chi Minh City. Through Vietnam Waste Solutions, California Waste Solutions developed large-scale waste-treatment infrastructure, including the Da Phuoc Integrated Solid Waste Facility. According to the company, the facility handles roughly half of Ho Chi Minh City’s waste.

The return also brought the family’s history full circle. The family that left the country following the war later became involved in developing waste-management infrastructure there, linking David Duong‘s work in California with the recycling business his father had established in Vietnam.

The documentary includes younger family members Victor Duong and Kristina Duong, whose perspectives appear alongside those of relatives who remember the escape from Vietnam and the first years of resettlement in America. Together, their accounts show how the family’s past continues to shape the next generation and its role in the businesses.

The Duong Family’s Journey Through Generations

Director Errol Webber was a cinematographer on the Academy Award-winning documentary short Music by Prudence. For The King of Trash, Webber combined family interviews, historical footage and reenactments shot in Vietnam. Webber has described the film as “a portrait of hope rising from loss, of a family who turned pain into purpose and created light from what others left behind.”

The film moves between the events of 1975, the family’s arrival in San Francisco, David Duong‘s career and the environmental services operations established in Vietnam. It also includes accounts from relatives who lived through displacement and from family members born or raised after resettlement in the United States.

San Francisco Film Festival and Upcoming Digital Release

The King of Trash will be represented at the 13th San Francisco International New Concept Film Festival’s red carpet and awards ceremony on Sunday, November 1, 2026, at the historic Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. The ceremony is scheduled from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m., with David Duong and director Errol Webber expected to attend. The festival’s selected-film screening program runs from October 25 through October 31. For event details and attendance inquiries, contact sfncff.rsvp@gmail.com or visit the festival’s official website.

Following 12 screening events across the United States and its recognition at film festivals, The King of Trash is preparing to reach a wider audience. The production team is working to finalize digital distribution through Amazon and other streaming platforms, allowing viewers beyond the original screening locations to discover the Duong family’s history and David Duong’s journey as a Vietnamese refugee and American entrepreneur. Further details, including participating platforms and release dates, will be announced once distribution arrangements are confirmed.

About California Waste Solutions

Founded in 1992 by David Duong, California Waste Solutions provides recycling collection, processing, customer service, and material recovery for residential, commercial, and municipal customers in Northern California, including Oakland and San José. Through its subsidiary Vietnam Waste Solutions, the company also operates large-scale environmental infrastructure in Ho Chi Minh City. Headquarters: 1211 Embarcadero, Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94606. www.calwaste.com.

About Vietnam Waste Solutions

Vietnam Waste Solutions is the wholly owned Vietnamese subsidiary of California Waste Solutions and operator of the Da Phuoc Integrated Solid Waste Facility serving Ho Chi Minh City. Da Phuoc Integrated Solid Waste Facility (DPI) was developed as Vietnam’s first sanitary landfill modeled on U.S. Subtitle D standards. Existing operations include sanitary landfill management, recycling and material recovery, composting, leachate and wastewater treatment, treated-water reuse, landfill-gas collection and electricity generation. VWS is advancing the proposed 50- to 60-megawatt Da Phuoc waste-to-energy project and continues development of the Long An Green Environmental Technology Park. Company website: www.vnwaste.com.

Media Contact

Wendy Nguyen
PR & Marketing Manager
California Waste Solutions
wendynguyen@calwaste.com

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SOURCE King of Trash