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Hot stuff: A scene from Dung Dot (Don't Burn), directed by Dang Nhat Minh. – File Photo |
HA NOI — A series of new Vietnamese feature films, shorts and documentaries from exceptional filmmakers will be presented in the US in the series entitled New Voices from Viet Nam.
Taking place through next Sunday, the programme is a part of an ongoing educational and cultural effort in the US launched by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and Viet Nam's Cinema Department.
The academy will salute director Dang Nhat Minh in a ceremony to be held at the academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Los Angeles.
To be hosted by academy governor and international outreach committee chairman Phil Alden Robinson, the ceremony will include clips from the features being screened in this series and a discussion with their directors, including the talented Minh, director of such classic Vietnamese films as Bao Gio Cho Den Thang Muoi (The Love Doesn't Return, 1984), Thuong Nhoù Dong Que (Nostalgia for the Countryside, 1996), Mua Oi (The Guava House, 2000), and Viet Nam's 2009 entry in the academy's Best Foreign Language Film competition, Dung Dot (Don't Burn).
"I will have conversations at several universities in the US to talk with students about filmmaking and the Vietnamese film industry," Minh said. "Presenting my films and talking about my work at the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, where Oscars are announced, is an honour."
American audiences have grown accustomed to seeing films set in Viet Nam, although they invariably present the US side of the war in Viet Nam, he said.
"The academy not only respects my films but also contemporary Vietnamese film, helping American audiences understand the Vietnamese film industry."
A new, post-war generation of young filmmakers has emerged even as some pioneering Vietnamese directors have continued to expand their range.
Some of the recent films to be screened in the series include director Phan Dang Di's impressive debut Bi, Dung So! (Bi, Don't Be Afraid!); Canh Dong Bat Tan (Floating Lives), directed by Nguyen Quang Binh; Trang Noi Day Gieng (The Moon at the Bottom of the Well), directed by Nguyen Vinh Son; Choi Voi (Adrift), directed by Bui Thac Chuyen; Bay Rong (Clash), directed by Le Thanh Son; and Cu Va Chim Se Se (The Owl and the Sparrow), directed by Stephane Gauger. — VNS