HA NOI — Young Vietnamese filmmakers have been invited to participate in a short ecological film competition.
The Vietdocs – Viet Nam Green Documentary Film Award competition was launched by the Goethe Institute Viet Nam in an aim to encourage and support the upcoming generation of filmmakers to produce documentaries that reflect outstanding issues, said Almuth Meyer-Sollitsch, head of the institute.
The competition's theme Climate Change – Changing my Life invites young filmmakers and students aged 18-30 to submit a written proposal on one A4 page for a short film on the subject of climate change and its consequences and local impacts.
Proposals submitted to the competition website will be made available to members of a jury committee which will select a maximum of 20 proposals for the second round.
The final 20 will be asked to write a script based on their proposals after they participate in a three-day workshop with a team of directors and writers from Germany where they will receive training on the various aspects of short documentary filmmaking and instruction on how to develop their script and plan the production.
The films, no longer than 15 minutes in length, will be shot, cut and finished between February and April 2011. Each short film team will receive US$250 to cover expenses upon delivery of the finished piece to the jury board.
Throughout the project, special attention will be given to developing knowledge among the participants on the different aspects of documentary film making. During the production phase, participants will have the opportunity to attend a production workshop at the institute's DocLab which will offer them advice and tools for their work.
The final 20 films will be screened at the Goethe-Institute Ha Noi and submitted to the jury in May, 2011. The jury will select 10 finalists for screening at the European Documentary Film Festival in Ha Noi in June, 2011.
The viewing public will be invited vote for the most well-crafted and interesting documentary.
The three best films will receive $500; $700 and $1,000 respectively. The first prize winner will also receive a maximum $3.500 budget to produce a 25-30 minute documentary to be included in the Southeast Asia Science Film Festival SeaDocs 2012 which is being organised by Goethe Institutes in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Viet Nam.
The institute and its partners German Development Service's (DED) and German Capacity Building International (InWent) hope to support young documentary film makers as well as contribute to greater public awareness of ecological issues and their relevance to life in Southeast Asia, said organisers.
Application forms are available at www.goethe.de/ins/vn/han/viindex.htm. — VNS