Another reason to live in LA: "New Voices from Vietnam" Films

Vietnamese cinema gets the spotlight in Los Angeles at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  and the UCLA Film and Television Archive in November. This is really a great line up of films and directors, both the canonical (Dang Nhat Minh), and the new, from both Viet Nam and the States. If you’re in L.A., you have to see this. If you’re not in L.A.–more reason to come live here!

See the full site announcement here (with pretty pictures), or read for more details below.

An Academy Salute to Director Dang Nhat Minh

Presented as part of the “New Voices from Vietnam” Screening Series

PRESENTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE UCLA FILM & TELEVISION ARCHIVE AS PART OF THE FILM SERIES “NEW VOICES FROM VIETNAM.”

HOSTED BY PHIL ROBINSON, ACADEMY GOVERNOR AND INTERNATIONAL OUTREACH COMMITTEE CHAIR.

Featuring an onstage conversation with Dang Nhat Minh and discussion with visiting Vietnamese directors Phang Dang Di (“Bi, Don’t Be Afraid”), Nguyen Quang Binh (“Floating Lives”), Bui Thac Chuyen (“Adrift”) and Stephane Gauger (“Owl and the Sparrow”).

American film audiences have grown used to seeing films set in Vietnam, though the story is invariably told from the U.S. side of a conflict the Vietnamese call “the American War.” But Vietnam has a long, rich history that transcends those two decades of war (in fact, Hanoi is celebrating the 1,000-year anniversary of its founding this month) and the rapidly developing nation has a bustling population of 88 million, the majority of whom are under 30 years old.

Now, an exciting group of creative and technically innovative younger filmmakers is emerging, finally able to tell their own personal stories free of the legacy of war, while some of the pioneering directors of the recent past continue to expand the range of their work. Vietnam’s filmmakers are poised to take their place among the world’s fascinating cinematic storytellers.

As a continuation of the Academy’s International Outreach Program of ongoing educational and cultural efforts in Vietnam, the Academy is partnering with the UCLA Film & Television Archive to present a series of new feature films, shorts and documentaries from these exceptional filmmakers.

This Academy Salute will include selected film clips from among the feature films being screened in the series “New Voices from Vietnam,” as well as providing the opportunity to hear from several of the directors of those films, and the legendary Dang Nhat Minh, in person. He is the acclaimed director of such classic Vietnamese films as “When the Tenth Month Comes” (1984), “Nostalgia for the Countryside” (1995), and Vietnam’s 2009 entry into the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award competition, “Don’t Burn.” In addition, Minh served as second unit director for Phillip Noyce’s “The Quiet American” (2002), one of the first American productions to shoot in post-war Vietnam.

The panel discussion will be followed by a screening of

“The Guava House” (2000)

Directed by Dang Nhat Minh

A middle-aged man whose emotional and mental development ended at adolescence becomes obsessed with a guava tree in the yard of his childhood home. When he is arrested after scaling a fence at his former home, he forms a unique relationship with the daughter of the powerful civil servant who now lives there. 100 mins.

Check back for event updates.