HCM CITY — The Viet Nam Cinematography Association held a meeting in HCM City last weekend to celebrate more than six decades of southern revolutionary movies.
Organised to mark the 35th anniversary of the liberation of South Viet Nam, the event attracted dozens of film directors, cinematographers and actors, including 10 senior artists who played a part in making revolutionary movies during the anti-French and American wars.
It began in October 1947 in the Dong Thap Muoi region (now located in Dong Thap, Tien Giang and Long An provinces) when the Southern Cinematography and Photography Branch was established to capture the life and fight of soldiers and people on celluloid.
The 10 veterans were among the original 69 members of the branch.
The first film to be made was a documentary titled Tran Moc Hoa (Moc Hoa Battle) by director and cinematographer Khuong Me and his colleagues, Mai Loc and Vu Son, which was released in December 1948.
It featured the victories of Battalion 307 of the resistance army against the French occupation, and won the Silver Lotus at the second Viet Nam Film Festival in 1973.
Other films on the French War were Tran La Ban (The La Ban Combat) in 1948, Binh Cong Xuong Khu 8 (The Eighth Zone's Arsenal) in 1949, Chien Dich Tra Vinh-Cau Ke (The Tra Vinh-Cau Ke Campaign) in 1950ø, and Het Doi De Quoc (The Aggressor's Death) in 1951.
All of them were made by skilled artists from the branch like Nguyen Danh, Xuan Phuong, An Son, Nguyen The Doan and Ly Cuong. Some of them died while shooting their films.
"Most of my colleagues have passed away but their works remain fresh," veteran cameraman Nguyen Danh said.
Cultural authorities have to work to raise young people's awareness of films made during the revolution and the life of people during the wars, especially during the French colonialist era.
Tran Luan Kim, chairman of the Viet Nam Cinematography Association, too emphasised the need to remember the revolutionary films made during the First Indochina war. "The artists who made the documentary films the French war laid the first brick in the Vietnamese revolution."
In July 1959 the first Vietnamese feature film, Chung Mot Dong Song (Sharing the Same River), was released and created a strong impression on audiences.
Directed by the late Hong Nghi and Hieu Dan, the film is about a pair of young lovers who are forced to part ways because of war. The man lives on the northern bank of the Ben Hai River, and the girl on the southern bank.
Forbidden
The Ben Hai in Quang Tri Province marked the temporary border between socialist North Viet Nam and the American-backed South Viet Nam, and traffic was forbidden across the river.
Director Pham Ky Nam's Chi Tu Hau (Ms Tu Hau) in 1963 and Huy Thanh's Noi Gio (Vortex) in 1966 both highlighted the beauty and bravery of Vietnamese women during the war.
The films' lead roles were played by nationally recognised actors Tra Giang and The Anh, who were later named People's Artist by the State.
Chi Tu Hau features a candid farmer, Ms Tu (played by Tra Giang), who becomes an active revolutionary. Two scenes from the film are especially moving: one in which she holds her baby and watches her husband going to fight and another where she is raped by an American soldier and tries to commit suicide by drowning herself in a river but is stopped by the sound of her baby crying.
Noi Gio narrates the lives of Van (played by Thuy Van) and her young brother Phuong (played by The Anh), who are children of a revolutionary officer.
Phuong gets lost when just a small child and is adopted by foster parents who send him to a southern military academy.
After graduation, he serves the Sai Gon army when he runs into his sister, Van, who is now a revolutionary and thus his enemy.
She is arrested by the southern authorities and tortured to elicit information. When her young child is tortured to death in front of her, Van loses her mind.
After witnessing such brutality, Phuong and a number of his subordinates join the resistance forces.
All of these movies will be broadcast on television channels around the country this month. — VNS