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Sound, light, Action!: A scene from the documentary Mr Long's Travelling Cinema by sports editor Nguyen Manh Cuong, which will be aired on the Discovery Channel's Travel & Living programme along with three other works by Vietnamese amateur and professional film makers. — VNS File Photo |
HA NOI — Vietnamese documentaries will be aired next month on the Discovery Channel's Travel & Living programme, broadcast in the Asia-Pacific region.
The documentaries were among 86 scripts to be sponsored by The First Filmmaker project funded by the Ford Foundation. Each of the 24-minute shows received US$20,000 to cover production costs.
Vietnamese filmmakers submitted proposals for their documentaries more than two years ago. The project was supervised by Redbridge, a Hanoian TV and film production company, who acted as an intermediary between the contest sponsors and the filmmakers.
The idea for the project belonged to Michael Digregorio, a former representative of Ford Foundation's defunct Ha Noi office (it closed in September 2009), three years ago.
Digregorio, who lived in the capital for more than 12 years, said international cinema lacked a Vietnamese perspective. Most films that dealt with Viet Nam in foreign markets, he noted, were produced by foreigners.
Thanh Pho 1,000 Nam Tuoi (One-Thousand-Year- Old City) by amateur director Nguyen Manh Ha, Nhung Chien Binh Chong Tac Duong (Acting Against Traffic Jams) by Phan Duy Linh – a journalist from Viet Nam Television, Rap Chieu Phim Di Dong Cua Bac Long (Mr Long's Travelling Cinema) by sports editor Nguyen Manh Cuong, and Le Cai Tang (Re-burial) by Dao Thanh Tung, the only professional director, were all selected following extensive screening.
The films feature a variety of subjects, including the contrast of the frenetic pace of Viet Nam in the ancient capital of Ha Noi, the traditional custom of reburial and a simple but alluring travelling cinema.
Director Ha was excited to discover his film would be aired on Discovery, which regularly draws audiences of up to 280 million.
"As far as I know, the channel has its own specific standards while requiring directors to express their own styles and national identities," he said. — VNS