VietNamNet Bridge – A screening of work by young Vietnamese filmmakers spotlights new trends in creative documentary production.

A screening of work by young Vietnamese filmmakers spotlights new trends in creative documentary production. — Photo goethe.de

Organised by Hanoi DocLab and Goethe-Institute Hanoi, the festival will feature award-winning documentaries by Truong Que Chi, Siu Pham and Nguyen Thi Tham.

Chi's Black Sun won the top prize at the 2014 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival.

Black Sun is a Vietnamese rock n' roll song from the 1970s featuring the view of young South Vietnamese before the impending unification of the nation in 1975. In 2012, the youths here are still singing this song.

The 12-minute film, which depicts a young couple strolling around HCM City, will be screened on October 31 at 7pm.

Afterwards, five other films will be shown including 1953 Case and Film No 1 by Nguyen Thuy Tien and Ta Minh Duc, which combine documentary with performance and narration.

On November 1, the latest productions by Hanoi DocLab's young filmmakers will provide insight into the process of shaping a new generation of independent documentary and experimental filmmakers in Ha Noi.

The short films, telling stories with diverse styles and voices, continue Doclab's tradition of exploring and developing diverse film languages of the individual.

Japan-based German filmmaker Werner Penzel will lead a film workshop entitled Haiku Happens and screen his co-work Step Across the Border. The avant-garde black & white documentary won the Best Documentary award at the European Film Awards in 1990.

Madam Phung's Last Journey by Nguyen Thi Tham will be shown on November 2. The film, which focuses on a group of travelling transvestite singers, was the first Vietnamese independent documentary to be screened extensively at international film festivals.

It received a Special Mention at the ChopShots Documentary Film Festival Southeast Asia in Jakarta earlier this year.

On the same day, a series of mixed-genre films will take the audience on imaginative journeys to Myanmar, Japan, India and inner worlds.

The festival will close on November 2 with Siu Pham's experimental film Homostratus, which received the Best Unique Vision award at the Queen World Film Festival this year in New York.

The festival also includes a panel discussion with Vietnamese independent and experimental filmmakers.

VNS/VNN