HA NOI (VNS)– A black-and-white film punctuated by the hectic tempo of Ha Noi will premiere on Saturday in the capital city.

The documentary, Nhung Am Thanh Ta Thay: Ban Giao Huong Thanh Pho Ha Noi (The Sound We See: A Ha Noi City Symphony), is an art project conducted by the experimental documentary making and video art centre Hanoi DocLab in collaboration with the Echo Park Film Center – a non-profit media arts organisation based in Los Angeles, and the Goethe Institute in Ha Noi.

Produced by 18 young local filmmakers, the work is a cinematic exploration of the dynamic urban environment of the capital.

For the past month, filmmakers worked together to document the rhythm and movement of daily life in Ha Noi from their unique perspectives. Participants shot locations they felt best represented the city at each particular time of day and night, with each hour becoming one minute in the final product. The result is a spectacular 24-minute journey through Ha Noi as it has never before been experienced.

Shot on black and white Super 8 motion picture film [8mm celluloid film] and hand-processed by the filmmakers on-site at the DocLab, the work references the classic cinema of Walter Ruttman's 1927 masterpiece Berlin: Symphony of a Great City while celebrating the energy and possibility of 21st-century Ha Noi.

The film will be screened at 7pm in the courtyard of the Goethe Institute, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street. Entrance is free.

The screening will be accompanied by a live score composed for the film by two local contemporary musicians, Luong Hue Trinh and Tri Minh. – VNS