VietNamNet Bridge – Cinema professionals recently held a workshop to discuss the need for improvements to the structure and management of the domestic film sector.

In search of a strategy: A scene from the comedy Long Ruoi, which earned VND40 billion (US$20 million) at the box office. — VNS File Photo
People's Artist director Bui Dinh Hac said an assessment of the entire Vietnamese cinema development process needed to be conducted to determine its strengths and weaknesses.

He suggested the State should establish a special department designated to improving the cinema sector which would be assigned to deal with any necessary changes to re-organise the sector.

Director Do Minh Tuan insisted the first and most important activity was to save the Viet Nam Feature Film Studio.

He encouraged the State to provide the studio with its own office and studio space to facilitate good business and promised that with a designated facility "we will actively improve the office to produce better quality films."

Director Dang Xuan Hai, chairman of the Viet Nam Cinema Association, wondered how the movie Long Ruoi (Mr Long with a Beauty-Spot on his Face), produced by the private company Galaxy, earned VND40 billion (US$20 million) in the box office.

"Why don't films produced by State companies earn that much?" he asked.

He also proposed the State to establish a national cinema group to cover all the essential functions of the sector, from importing foreign films to producing and issuing domestic films.

"State-owned cinema companies should be strong enough to compete with the private cinema sector," he said.

Deputy culture minister Ho Anh Tuan said he understood participant concerns and would deal with solutions to the problems in a strategy for domestic cinema.

The conference gathered nearly 100 participants from the cinema industry who shared the same worries over the poor income for State cinema workers as well as the poor quality of cinema products made by State-owned companies during the past 10 years.

Cinema critic Dinh Trong Tuan said the State had invested hundreds of billions of dong in the cinema sector, "yet the contradiction remains that the national cinema technical centre is currently being rented by the private firm Audio Visual JSC (AVG) while domestic movies are sent to Thailand and Hong Kong for final processing.

"It's a waste and reveals bad management," he said.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News