Scene from "The Anniversary" by Ham Tram. Courtesy of VietFilmFest.com

In Their Own Voices

By Xenia Shin and Bobby Okinaka

It was one year in the making, but a long time coming. The first ever Vietnamese International Film Festival (VIFF) debuted on the campus of UC Irvine in Southern California on October 23, 2003 with a heartfelt presentation of short films representing the breadth and craftsmanship of Vietnamese talent behind the camera.

Festival director Tram Le and Public Relations Director Ysa Le (no relation) organized the event that would showcase eight days worth of features, shorts, documentaries, and animation by Vietnamese directors from around the world. Tram Le's vision was realized through the diligent effort by two student cultural groups, the Vietnamese-American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA) and VietNamese Language and Culture (VNLC), that also provided volunteers for all the events. The School of Humanities at UC Irvine also gave invaluable support in making the festival come true by not only providing a venue, but also helping Le to locate the filmmakers.

VIFF was different from most culturally-based film festivals in that the content did not have to focus specifically on Vietnamese culture or issues. The purpose of the festival was to support the Vietnamese filmmaker. According to Le, "It's okay if the film is not about Vietnam because the filmmaker brings the essence of being Vietnamese in the storytelling." She added that by supporting the filmmakers, this would unite the community and provide a cultural bridge with others.

The festival also provided a generational bridge putting the American-born Vietnamese in touch with the stories of their parents. Jenni Trang Le, a student at UCLA, felt that the festival was important for helping future writers and directors develop their talent in terms of forging her generation's identity. The Houston-raised VIFF volunteer added, "As Asian Americans we have to write what we know, we have to have our own voice."

For more on the festival, visit VietFIlmFest.com.

Film Highlights of Opening Night

"Montmartre Murder Mystery" written by Huy Truong and Susana Ruiz

Shot on location in the Montmartre, Paris, the film captures beautiful images of the artists' quarter in nostalgic sepia. In the story, Camille (wonderfully played by Ruiz), comes to Paris, suspecting that her grandmother, the famous cabaret singer Gigi l'Amour, was killed by her younger lover, Claude. Camille is aided by her friends Keddem and Salek, an underground rapper who plays himself in the film. Jean-Marie, a lifelong fan of Gigi, fatefully runs into the group, and offers to help in their efforts to expose Claude. The characters are offbeat, comic and memorable, and a droll loser vibe lends itself to the sparkling dialogue. Gigi's ghostly presence infuses the story through the cabaret songs on the soundtrack, and the film moves seamlessly into a vibrant concert scene featuring a performance by Salek.

"The Anniversary," Ham Tran's MFA project at UCLA

Scene from "The Anniversary" by Ham Tram. Courtesy of VietFilmFest.com

This film has been making the festival circuit to much acclaim, featured at Slamdance, Tribeca Film Festival, and USA Film Festival among others.

The cinematography, by Guillermo Rosas, is saturated with rich colors evoking the intense atmospheres of childhood, war, and spiritual meditation. "The Anniversary" condenses a span of 30 years, interweaving three different timelines in the life of Hiep, a Buddhist monk in Vietnam. In 1963, when Hiep is a young boy, his father takes him to Northern Vietnam to flee religious persecution, while his mother and brother Hung remain behind.

Tran's treatment of childhood is profound in its revelations. In one scene, Hiep and his brother are playing with a cricket, pulling the body out of its shell with a stick. It is nearly as unbearable to watch as the intercut war scenes. I asked Tran about this scene, and he responded, "The significance of the cricket was in one respect what I remembered about growing up in Vietnam. Here kids have Game Boy. There we had crickets...I was also thinking about how I could use this image as a way to represent what the war was like for Vietnamese people. That is, pitted against each other in a box created by politics. These thoughts, however, never occurred to me growing up in Vietnam. It was only after I saw the "Vietnam war" films like "Platoon," "Full Metal Jacket" and "Apocalypse Now," that it felt as if something has been left out of this representation of the war."

The film deftly moves from one timeline to another, while subtle associations between them arise. We focus on the texture of life in childhood, the sudden revival of memories, and the brutal sensations of war. Suddenly, everything comes together when the brothers Hung and Hiep reunite in the war, ten years later.

Other shorts included in opening night were:

"0.5 + 0.5 = 0.5": An experimental short by My Le Thi features beautiful images of Vietnam contrasted with life in Australia. The short invokes the nature of always being "half," never fully inhabiting the culture you are from or assimilate into.

"Watermelon Island": An animated short made for the festival by Tuan Kien Nguyen, about the legend of An Tiem, the adopted son of King Hung Vuong.

"Cycle": An energetic short by Nguyen Tran Minh-Chieu featuring a guy chasing after someone who stole his bike; they have a martial arts confrontation in an abandoned lot.

"Birds & Bees": By Edward T. Tran, is about a guy who has a nightmare scenario of having to talk to his girlfriend's godfather-like dad about whether they are having sex.