Vietnamese American unveils fall-winter collection

“Strong Wind” is the theme of a fall-winter 2014/15 collection that Vietnamese-American fashion designer Tran Phuong My has introduced to local audiences based on her inspiration from menswear representing strong images of women.

The 26-year-old designer unveiled this collection at the Mercedes Benz Stylo Asia Fashion Week in Malaysia late last month and at the World Fashion Exhibition in Singapore in September.

My uses hi-tech wool made in Japan as the main material for the collection. She combines different types of material for her items, including wool for the body of an outfit or for dresses while net-style wool is for the lower part of an outfit in shape of a scarf.

Noticeably, there are oversize overcoats without shoulder-straps and knee-long dress attached with scarves. My also uses bold color palette from the previous fall-winter collection like red, black, blue and grey but mixes two colors in each design.

My has brought home numerous design awards in the U.S. and has her creations sold in China, Singapore, the UAE, France and the U.S.

Her costumes are on sale at Phuong My Flagship Store on Le Thanh Ton Street in HCMC’s District 1 or at www.phuongmy.com.vn. One of the latest designs of Phuong My on stage of the Mercedes Benz Stylo Asia Fashion Week in Malaysia in late October.

Best young short-movie makers honored

“WD 48 Hour Film Project Vietnam” (WD 48HFP) organizers last week picked “Neu de duoc yeu” (If I were loved), a short movie by A To Film Group from HCMC, as the best movie of the project.

A panel of judges comprising popular Vietnamese American director Victor Vu and local veteran director Nguyen Vinh Son selected the production from 31 films by young movie makers from HCMC and other localities.

The silent movie, which is about a man who turns crazy after the death of his girlfriend in a traffic accident when she tries to save him, also won Best Actor for Nguyen Kha Quoc Dat and Best Use of Devices.

The movie will represent Vietnam at the world’s final of WD 48HFP in Los Angeles, USA in 2015. The winning film of the final will be selected for the Cannes International Film Festival in France and screened in 125 countries and territories participating in the 48HFP 2015.

The movie’s 28-year-old director To Cong Tuan told the Daily that he loves to work under pressure of timing and that joining the WD 48 Hour Film Project is a great challenge for him. Tuan, who has had 10 years’ experience in film making, finished his winning movie within 19 hours with a crew of five actors and three staff.

The winning movie cost VND5 million, inclusive of VND1.5 million of the project’s registration fee.

The second and third prizes went to the movies “Toc” (hair) by Chat team and “Toi la than den” (I’m a genie) by Dreamers.

Chat team also won prizes for Best Director, Best Cinematography and Best Sound while Nguyen Hoang Anh from the Dreamers pocketed Best Actress prize.

Best Script, Best Dialogue and Audiences’ Vote went to “Khoanh khac vinh hang” by Decent Men & Chu Teu. Crazy Y, Hegero, and Bao la tinh ban teams grasped other major prizes.

WD 48 HFP was launched in HCMC in late September and in Hanoi in mid-October. The organizers, HCMC-based Cloud 9 Production and hard drive brand WD, received around 100 entries. After 48 hours, they got 31 films from HCMC and 44 from Hanoi teams.

The winning teams will receive prizes from WD, cash and scholarships from local film production schools.

Originally founded in the U.S., the 48 Hour Film Project is the largest time-based film making competition in the world as it has attracted contestants from over 130 cities in six continents. More than 1,600 young producers have turned out over 350 short films for the 48 Hour Film Project in Vietnam since 2010.

Italian photographer features Vietnam-Italy culture

A photo exhibition themed “Vietnam – Italia: Colori distanti” will be introduced to Hanoians at the Italian cultural centre “Casa Italia” on November 14.

The photos, taken by Italian photographer Maurizio Cofini, show his love and passions for the two countries.     

Cofini wants to convey a message to visitors that Italy and Vietnam may be geographically distant from each other, but are bounded by many cultural and aesthetic similarities.

The exhibition was held in Rome in 2009. In 2010, he held another exhibition titled “Mosaico d’immagini. Vietnam e Angkor”.

Born in Rome in 1956, Maurizio Cofini started working as a photographer in 1979, paying a special attention to photographic adaptation for theatre, ethnics and geography.

In late 2009, Cofini worked for Vietnamese art and architecture magazine Kien Truc Nha Dep that published some of his pictures in the present exhibition. He is currently working for the photo agency Le Clic.

The event, co-organised by the Embassy of Italy in Vietnam, is within the framework of “Italy-Vietnam 2014” programme.

VN movies in film fest tell tales of hardship

Nhung Nguoi Con Cua Lang (Children of the Village) and Dap Canh Giua Khong Trung (Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere) will vie for the feature film award of US$5,000 at the third Ha Noi International Film Festival (HANIFF), which kicks off on November 23.

Directed by Nguyen Duc Viet, Children of the Village is a post-war story about a village in the centre of Viet Nam. Thap, a former guerrilla leader who survived a massacre, cannot forget the pain of war.

As head of the village, he constantly reminds his fellow villagers of the importance of revenge. However, through historical changes, sacrifice and loss, the village elder finally acknowledges that he should overcome the past and open his heart in order to help his village escape from poverty.

Commissioned by the State and produced by Hong Ngat Film, the film was shot in Dak Rong District in the central province of Quang Tri.

"When I read the script I thought the theme was very tough. It is difficult to make a good film with the post-war theme. But the script was written very well," director Viet said.

However, like many other Vietnamese movies, Children of the Village has failed to lure local audiences.

The other contender, the first feature by Vietnamese director Nguyen Hoang Diep, won the Venice Film Festival's International Critics' Week award. The protagonist, Huyen, is a young girl who needs money to procure an abortion. Her boyfriend Tung suddenly disappears after losing their money in a cockfight.

"I chose this title because I wanted to express the confusion people feel when they are not able to fly high but do not feel safe enough to land.

That's why they keep flapping around in the middle of nowhere," said Diep.

Made with a budget of 410,000 euros ($551,000), the film received financial support from the Berlin International Film Festival's World Cinema Fund, Global Film Initiative and French World Cinema. After attending many international film festivals in Italy, Canada and Taipei, Flapping in The Middle of Nowhere will finally debut in Viet Nam.

Other Vietnamese movies will be screened in the Panorama and Viet Nam Today sections. The Panorama programme will introduce new movies Diu Dang (Gentle), Nuoc (Water), Huong Ga; Nhung Nguoi Viet Huyen Thoai (Legend Makers), Song Cung Lich Su (Living with History) and documentary Thien Nhan.

The Viet Nam Today programme will show 11 recent highlights of Vietnamese cinema including blockbuster Scandal Two, award-winning Than Tuong (Idol) and horror film Doat Hon (Hollow).

Da Lat kicks off “Vietnamese ethnic group beauty” festival

A festival titled “Vietnamese ethnic group beauty” was opened at Da Lat city’s Lam Vien Square on November 9.

Responding to the National Tourism Year of Central Highlands – Da Lat 2014, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism celebrated the event, aiming to praise Vietnamese women’s beauty and respect the image of Vietnam through traditional charm dresses.

The festival featuring more than 100 traditional dresses used brocade, silk material were designed as Vietnamese ethnic groups such as four panel traditional dress, flat palm hat with fringes, Ao dai (Vietnamese traditional dress), striking color Cham dresses and Ao ba ba (Vietnamese silk pajamas).

The costumes are to mark symbol of Vietnamese women with the traditional dresses in faith activities, weeding party as well as daily life.

Saigon International Guitar Festival 2014 opens

Saigon International Guitar Festival 2014 will take place at Ho Chi Minh City Conservatory of Music from November 12-16.

The event will feature internationally well-known guitarists from the U.S, Italy, Malaysia, Iceland, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The ‘Six Centuries of Guitar Music’ concert will be the festival's opening night performance at 8 p.m. on November 12 and performed by American guitarists Harris Becker, Director of Guitar Studies at the Long Island University in New York; and Paul Cesarczyk Head of Guitar Department of the College of Music, Mahidol University in Thailand.

The second concert called ‘Romantique Guitar Music’ presenting masterpieces by Agustine Barrios, Johann Kaspar Mertz hay Miguel Llobet will take place at 8 p.m. on November 15. Artists including Salvatore Foderà from Italia, Gonzalo Noel Misa from the Philippines, together with Thanh Huy and Ba Tho of Vietnam will join the event.

The last show themed ‘The 20th Century and Contemporary Guitar Music’ will introduce to Vietnamese audiences through performances of Ogmundur Thor Johannesson from Iceland and Simon Cheong from Malaysia, and  the Saigon Guitar Quartet, on November 16.

On the other hand, the “Young guitarists” performance and a workshop introducing musical instruments will also be taken place respectively at 6 p.m. on November 13 and at 6 p.m. on November 14.

Dai Nam Park extends free admission plan

Dai Nam Van Hien Tourist Park in Binh Duong Province, which borders HCMC, has decided to extend a free-admission plan until November 20 from the original date of November 10 given massive guest arrivals in the past week.

The company earlier announced visitors would be admitted free from early last week until on November 9 but would pay half prices for certain games at the park before the park’s temporary closure until the end of this year.

Figures from the Tourism and Travel Center of the park show hundreds of thousands of people have rushed to the park, with the number on Saturday alone amounting to nearly 100,000.

Nguyen Phuong Hang, a shareholder of Dai Nam Joint Stock Company, the developer of the park, suggested extending the free-admission plan due to massive visits by guests and her proposal was approved by the board of directors.

Documentary films will be screened at the French Cultural Centre in Ha Noi tomorrow, with the aim of raising public awareness about climate change impact and policies.

The films, provided by the French Agency for Development (AFD), will be in French and Vietnamese.

To put the theme in perspective, a discussion will be organised with the participation of AFD experts, representatives from the French Embassy and the French Regional Delegation for Co-operation, as well as ASEAN and Vietnamese journalists.

The event will begin at 2pm at the auditorium of L'Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street, Ha Noi.

It is part of the special week – entitled "The Climate Is Changing… What about Us?" – launched by the French Embassy in Ha Noi, with the assistance of the Viet Nam Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and international partners.

The participants will discuss the fact that policy makers sometimes focus on economic development, while neglecting climate or environmental issues, and projects supporting climate change adaptation in Viet Nam as well as the human dynamics of climate change, according to the French Embassy's cultural counsellor Eva Nguyen Binh.

Japanese fan fiction contest opens

Vietnamese readers can create and express their love for Japanese fiction by joining the fan fiction (fanfic) contest launched nationwide with the theme "I Love Japanese Literature".

To celebrate Japanese Literature Week from December 24 to 31, the contest organisers require participants to send their writings in Vietnamese to the organising board of Nha Nam Publishing and Communications Company and Japan Foundation Centre for Cultural Exchange in Viet Nam before December 4.

Fanfic are stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work rather than by the original creator. They are written on the basis of parts of the original work. Most fanfic writers assume that their work is read primarily by other fans.

Within the contest framework, participants may create fanfic based on works of remarkable Japanese authors such as Haruki Murakami, Banana Yoshimoto, Ogawa Yoko and Higashino Keigo.

Writers of excellent works will receive awards at the opening ceremony of Japanese Literature Week.