A Chorus Must Have Many Voices: Surveying Contemporary Vietnamese Cinema
Bringing together some of Vietnam’s most exciting new talents whose films have travelled the film festival circuit globally, this panel surveys the current state of contemporary Vietnamese cinema through the eyes of its emerging practitioners. From shifts in the industry to challenges experienced throughout the production process, young Vietnamese filmmakers will discuss their hopes, aspirations, and plans for a filmic landscape finding its place in world cinema.
Note: Phan Dang Di, film director and founder of Autumn Meeting, was originally scheduled to be a speaker for this session, but was unfortunately unable to attend.
Speakers
Viet Vu
Việt Vũ (Quang Trung Phạm) has so far completed a series of short films on memories of various marginalised communities in different socio-political zones across Asia and Europe, including Vietnam, Portugal, Hungary and Belgium. They are typically shot in long takes with first-person perspective camera. His debut short The Ant-Man was awarded The Jury Prize at SeaShorts 2018. His works have been shown at Locarno, Rotterdam, Tampere, Singapore among other film festivals. Viet has been studying at Doc Nomads 8 and participated in Berlinale Talents 2021 as a director.
Pham Ngoc Lan
Pham Ngoc Lan is a Vietnamese film director with a background in urban planning and architecture. Lan’s debut short film The Story of Ones (2012) has been screened in numerous film festivals and art museums. His first two short fiction films, Another City and Blessed Land both premiered at the Berlinale Shorts Competition. His newest short film The Unseen River, which is part of the anthology project MEKONG 2030, premiered at the Pardi di Domani in Locarno Film Festival and Shorts Program in Sundance Film Festival. Currently, Lan is developing his first feature film Cu Li Never Cries.
Vu Minh Nghia
Vu Minh Nghia graduated as valedictorian from the University of Theater and Cinema, in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. He continues to study for a Master’s degree in Film Criticism. He received a full scholarship funded by the state to study in VGIK – The Russian State University of Cinematography in Moskva, Russia. Nghia’s former short film named Hey U was selected under the Asian Vision Short Film in Singapore International Film Festival 2019. He is developing his first feature film named Bubble Era.
Pham Hoang Minh Thy
Pham Hoang Minh Thy now works as an independent filmmaker. She was a trainee from FLY 2018 (ASEAN Rok Film Leaders Incubator), HANIFF Talent Campus and Autumn Meeting (Cinema event in Vietnam). Her debut short film The Graduation of Edison was selected under the Southeast Asian Short Film Competition in Singapore International Film Festival 2019. Live In Cloud-Cuckoo Land – her latest short co-directed with Vu Minh Nghia is selected in Venice Film Festival 2020.
Moderator
Alfonse Chiu
Alfonse Chiu is a writer, artist, curator, and researcher working at the intersection of text, space, and the moving image. Departing from investigations into the histories and contestations of both the built and natural environments in Southeast Asia, their practice focuses on networked readings of the economies of geopolitical and socio-economic imaginaries as mediated by cartography and other modalities of spatial representation. They currently head SINdie, an editorial platform exploring Southeast Asian film culture(s), where they work on editorial direction, research, and special projects. They are also the founder of the Centre for Urban Mythologies, a project-based research initiative interested in the (im)material tensions present within the urban contexts of the region, and co-founder of the Moving Picture Experiment Group, a curatorial and research collective exploring the polyvalency of the moving image medium in contemporary practices. They are currently the programme manager of the SeaShorts Film Society.
Strange Pictures: Artist Videos, Experimental Cinema, and the New Media Turn
Exploring contemporary developments in the ecology of the moving image from various artistic and geographical perspectives, this panel brings together practitioners from across Southeast Asia whose works lie in the intersections of curatorial, artistic, and filmic concerns to discuss the historical developments leading to the current artistic landscape, as well as trajectories and future possibilities in how a moving image practice could be defined in the regional context.
Speakers
Sam I-shan
Sam I-shan is a curator with an interest in time-based media, photography, and art and politics. With fifteen years’ experience in art institutional settings, she was previously curator at National Gallery Singapore, Singapore Art Museum, and Esplanade Visual Arts. Her monographic, research-focused exhibitions at NGS include the Ng Teng Fong Roof Garden Commission: Cao Fei, and Georgette Chen: At Home in the World. At Esplanade, she curated and managed new commissions and site-specific exhibitions, working with a range of regional artists. Her exhibitions at SAM include Afterimage: Contemporary Photography in Southeast Asia. She also headed film and moving image initiatives there, specialising in Artist Films, and co-programming the annual Southeast Asian Film Festival.
Los Otros
Based in Manila, Los Otros is a critically-acclaimed film and video studio and platform dedicated to supporting works with unique personal voices. Los Otros is also a space, film lab, and platform committed to the intersections of film and art, with a focus on process over product. They work with experimental/artist film and video makers and initiatives both locally and abroad to bring people, programs, and works into dialogue.
Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Tuan Andrew Nguyen’s practice explores strategies of political resistance enacted through narrative strategies informed by ideas of counter-memory and post-memory. Extracting and re-working narratives via history and supernaturalisms is an essential part of Nguyen’s video works and sculptures where fact and fiction are both held accountable. In his investigations into the strategies of storytelling, he co-founded The Propeller Group, a platform for collectivity that situates itself between an art collective and an advertising company.
Moderator
Alfonse Chiu
Alfonse Chiu is a writer, artist, curator, and researcher working at the intersection of text, space, and the moving image. Departing from investigations into the histories and contestations of both the built and natural environments in Southeast Asia, their practice focuses on networked readings of the economies of geopolitical and socio-economic imaginaries as mediated by cartography and other modalities of spatial representation. They currently head SINdie, an editorial platform exploring Southeast Asian film culture(s), where they work on editorial direction, research, and special projects. They are also the founder of the Centre for Urban Mythologies, a project-based research initiative interested in the (im)material tensions present within the urban contexts of the region, and co-founder of the Moving Picture Experiment Group, a curatorial and research collective exploring the polyvalency of the moving image medium in contemporary practices. They are currently the programme manager of the SeaShorts Film Society.