Film description

ELEVEN MEN (2016)

28'

A found footage essay composed of various scenes from classic films starring Nhu Quynh – a great actress of the Golden Era of Vietnamese cinema. The fragments come from different stages of her career, which lasted for over three decades (from 1966 to 2000), mostly from the films made by the national Vietnam Feature Film Studio. The images are accompanied by narration, an adapted fragment of Franz Kafka's "Eleven Sons" from 1919.

LETTERS FROM PANDURANGA (2015)

35'

A visual essay, balancing on the verge of fiction and documentary, intimacy and politics, based on the letter exchanged between a man and a woman. The concept grew ot of the Vietnamese government's idea of building one of the two first nuclear power plants in the country in Ning Thuan (previously known as Panduranga), a region inhabited by the Cham ethinc group, which nurtures its ancient, 2000 year old matriarchal tradition rooted in the Hindu culture. The film explores the merger of the past and the present, but it is also a comment on the echoes of colonial experiences, which are still very much alive, and an intimate reflection on the role of the artist in defining the shape of reality.

The screening will be introduced by Nguyen Quoc Thanh from the Nha San Collective.