‘Southeast Asian Student Documentary Awards’ invites entries

The 2012 ‘Southeast Asian Student Documentary Awards’ (SEADocs)  is inviting students between the ages of 18-28 from Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam to submit their creative screen writings for films, by August 3.

This year the competition theme is ‘H2O: Sink or Swim’ and it aims to encourage documentary filmmaking on social and environmental issues.

Water is the most abundant compound on Earth, and also the most important natural resource for mankind, which presents pressing ecological and social challenges of the 21st Century. However, it faces growing constraints on availability, quality, and freshwater resources.

In recent years, countries in Southeast Asia have been coping with the challenges of water amidst sharply changing relations between societies and the environment, whether through excessive flooding or fresh water scarcity. The factors causing these conflicts are sometimes natural, sometimes man-made.

The online application form for the competition can be filled out online at www.goethe.de/sciencefilmfestival.

Entries can be sent to Goethe-Institute in Hanoi, 56-58 Nguyen Thai Hoc street, Ba Dinh District.

Winners will be announced on December 10, 2012.

Can Tho hosts final round of National Sports Festival

The final round of the 8th National Sports Festival began in Can Tho city on July 26.

The event has drawn 7,805 athletes who are competing in 19 events.

The organising board has mobilised 171 volunteers and 50 teachers to support the athletes.

In addition to more than 14,000 hotel rooms arranged for participating delegations, some 2,000 rooms are offered free-of-charge at college hostels.

This year the event has been held in different regions around the country, including Phu Tho, Bac Ninh, Nghe An and Binh Duong.

Can Tho was chosen to host the final round.

The national festival aims to promote the sporting movement amongst students and discover young talents in Vietnam.

World of Japanese toys in Hanoi

The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, in cooperation with Koto Co., Ltd, will display cute and charming toys created by twelvetone and designed by Takashi Tsunoda at design exhibition ‘The World of Interior Toy’ from August 12 to September 9 at the center.

The name twelvetone is inspired by music which is composed with only twelve tones but the combination of the tones is almost infinite - and it implies that there are a lot of complicated things in the world and at the same time simple.

This company is a design philosophy of Tsunoda who has won the Good Design Awards of Japan twice for his interior toys. His products are all simple but cute and adorable with a variety of characters.

Piperoid (which won the Good Design Award in 2007) is a paper robot craft kit for both kids and adults. To create a copy of the character all you need is a pair of scissors and you just cut, fold and connect the pipes to build your own robot with movable joints in less than 30 minutes. Each character has a unique background story, and after assembly it can be used as an accent for home or office decor and even as a memo holder.

Play-deco (which won Good Design Award 2011) is a unique craft for home decor that combines wooden ‘bone’ with paper ‘skin’. Each package includes paper texture sheet and wooden bone sheet that is perforated and precut so there are no tools required – not even scissors.

Apart from the award-winning toys, Monster Cube which Tsunoda created inspired by traditional Japanese handicrafts, will also be displayed.

The exhibition starts at 2 p.m. on August 11 with a talk from the designer “How to design kawaii (cute) characters” at the Japan Foundation Exhibition Hall, 27 Quang Trung, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi. Workshops to make interior toys will be held from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Vespa Club helps raise funds for nation's ‘Heroic Mothers'

Members of the Sai Gon Vespa Club have kicked off a fund-raising tour across the country on Vespa scooters. The tour, to mark War Invalids and Martyrs' Day (July 27), seeks to raise public awareness of the sacrifice made by veterans and their mothers.

During their 2,000km tour, participants will help heroic mothers who lost husbands and children during the war and make a call for taking better care of them.

Hoi An-Japan Festival to boost cultural exchange in August

The central province of Quang Nam is preparing for the 10th Hoi An – Japan Festival that opens in the heritage city of Hoi An on August 24.

The three-day festival, part of this year's Heritage Tourism 2012 campaign, will include shows by well-known Japanese performers like DJ Samurai and the Gypsy Queen band.

There will also be photo exhibitions, folk games, screenings of Oscar-winning Japanese animated films, Japanese and local cuisine promotions, and a craft fair.

Street arts, fashion shows, and dancing and singing by artists from the two countries will be held at the Chua Cau (Bridge Pagoda), a unique covered structure built by the Japanese with a Buddhist pagoda on one side.

An annual event since 2002, the festival is organised by the province in co-operation with the Japanese embassy in Ha Noi and the Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Viet Nam.

VNN/VOV/SGT/VNS