Tran Van Kirk

In the summer of 1969, during the peak of the Vietnam War, Kirk was born in DaNang, Vietnam as Tran Van Hung of a Vietnamese mother and an American Serviceman. Immediately after being born, Kirk was forcibly taken from his mother and dropped off at the Sacred Heart Orphanage in DaNang by his uncle on the orders of his Vietnamese Grandfather, who felt shame from his teenage daughter's out-of-wedlock pregnancy by an American. When he was taken to the orphanage, his name was changed to Nguyen Viet Hung so that his mother wouldn't be able to find him. In 1971, he was adopted by a US Army Major that was serving in the Vietnam War and became a naturalized US citizen in 1972 and was given the name, Kirk Paul Kellerhals. In 2017, on a whim, Kirk submitted to a DNA test simply to determine his full ethnicity and maybe connect with a distant biological relative. The results led Kirk to discover that his birth mother and birth father were indeed alive and well and that he had brothers and sisters that he didn't know existed. Kirk also discovered that his birth mother had been searching for him for over 40 years. Kirk is the Director and Executive Producer for "Intersections". Kirk also contributes to the "Intersections" Documentary Film Series as the Senior Editor, Cinematographer, Writer, Audio Design and Effects Mixer, and Aerial Cinematographer. In 2023 as a part of his adoptee journey of self identity, and as an honor to his roots and the life he was given by his adoptive family, Kirk changed his name to Tran Van Kirk.