Finding Phong
[Vsg] Queer Cinema from Vietnam at Viet Film Festival in Orange, California
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Dan Tsang <dtsang@uci.edu>
Apr 15, 2016, 5:56 PM
to vsg
Two features and one short depict queer cinema from Vietnam are will be screening Sunday, 17 April 2016 at VAALA's Vietnamese Film Festival that has just opened at the AMC 30 (The Outlets) in Orange, California.
See blog: http://subversities.blogspot.com/2016/04/queer-cinema-from-vietnam-at-vietnamese.html
dan
Daniel C. Tsang
Distinguished Librarian
Data Librarian and Bibliographer for Asian American Studies,
Economics, Political Science, Orange County documents (interim)
468 Langson Library, University of California, Irvine
PO Box 19557, Irvine CA 92623-9557, USA
1 949 824 4978 (Tel); 1 949 824 0605 (Fax), dtsang@uci.edu (E-mail)
Office hours: 4-4:30 p.m. Fridays when on campus, or by appointment
My Subject Guides: http://libguides.lib.uci.edu/profile.php?uid=2616
Nicolas Lainez <niklainez@gmail.com>
Apr 15, 2016, 6:23 PM
to Vietnam
Dear list,
The film Finding Phong that is screened at VAALA’s festival is incredibly powerful. It is a truly intimate, sensitive and touching documentary that follows the struggle of Phong, a young man living in Hanoi, as he transforms into a woman in Thailand. It received the prestigious Grand Prix Nanook-Jean Rouch at the Festival Jean Rouch in France. The filmmakers, Swann Dubus and Tran Phong Thao, have recently made another film about AIDS and drug-use among the Tai people, called "Up the Hills, Down the Valley" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Au1cfBnCM).
There is another very powerful cinéma vérité documentary film about transgenders in Vietnam which has received less attention: "Madame Phung’s Last Journey" (http://icarusfilms.com/new2015/mme.html). This film takes the viewer on a year-long ride with an itinerant troupe of cross-dressing performers, led by Madam Phung, as they travel the remote southern regions and central highlands. From change rooms, to on-stage performances, to time spent in tour buses, Vietnamese filmmaker Nguyễn Thị Thấm develops a remarkable and intimate rapport with the performers. They share their fears, expose their vulnerabilities, and talk about the challenges of being gay in Vietnam: including employment discrimination and dealing with audiences who might just as easily throw rocks at the performers as try to hit on them during the show. This film addresses many issues that are under-researched in Vietnam including indebtedness, informal finance, gambling, astrology, stigma and violence, and the creation of families and fictive kinship bonds for solidarity and mutual help purposes.
Best wishes,
Nicolas Lainez
IRIS/EHESS
Paris/Singapore
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Attachments area
Preview YouTube video New MRG documentary - 'Up the Hills; Down the Valley’ (TRAILER)
Chuck Searcy <chuckusvn@gmail.com>
Apr 15, 2016, 8:56 PM
to Nicolas, Vietnam
Finding Phong was first shown last year at the Hanoi Cinematheque, to a packed house of mostly young Vietnamese and a number of older Vietnamese as well as foreigners. The film is a remarkable documentary, a very intimate sharing of a young person's life-changing experience in a quest to be the person she truly is.
Equally remarkable, for many of us foreigners, is the warm and endearing portrait of Phong's family, the older brother, sister-in-law, and especially Phong's aging mother and father. Both in their eighties, the parents live in poor and rural Viet Nam, traditionally and timelessly. They might be expected to face a troubling and puzzling range of emotions -- anger, denial, rejection -- on realizing the path their son, about to be their daughter, has chosen.
However, the filmmakers' close and intimate portrayal of the parents' adjustment, their processing of the new reality they're facing and the unwavering love and support they give to Phong, offer a revealing look at aspects of Vietnamese family life, culture, and pride that are rarely seen by foreigners.
The story includes humor as well -- with stereotypes, sexual innuendo, and conventional "wisdom" regarding various social taboos eliciting knowing laughter from an appreciative Vietnamese audience.
Phong, with her elderly mother, have gone on to become persuasive and effective advocates before Viet Nam's National Assembly, speaking out for reforms in Viet Nam's laws regarding same-sex relationships and gender.
CHUCK SEARCY
============================================
CHUCK SEARCY
International Advisor, Project RENEW
Tư Vấn Viên Quốc tế, Dự án RENEW
Vice President, Veterans For Peace Chapter 160
Phó chủ tịch, Cưu Chiến Binh vì Hoà Bình Chương 160 (Hòa Bình)
Co-Chair, NGO Agent Orange Working Group
Đồng Chủ tịch, Nhóm làm việc Phi chính phủ về Chất độc da cam
71 Trần Quốc Toản, Hà Nội, Việt Nam
Mobile +8 490 342 0769
Skype chucksearcy
Email chuckusvn@gmail.com
Web http://veteransforpeace.org
Web http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/workinggroups/agentorange
============================================
Hakkarainen, Minna K <minna.hakkarainen@helsinki.fi>
Apr 17, 2016, 10:27 PM
to Chuck, Nicolas, Vietnam
Dear all,
does anyone know if the film Finding Phong is available in some format that could be bought? I searched for it from Amazon as I would love to show it to my students as part of the Gender and Development course that I am currently teaching. Especially when the lecture next week will focus on queer. Or, if you could recommend any other documentary on Vietnam in these lines that is available..
Best,
Minna Hakkarainen
PhD, Development Studies
University of Helsinki
Finland
________________________________________
From: Vsg [vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu] on behalf of Chuck Searcy [chuckusvn@gmail.com]
Sent: 16 April 2016 06:56
To: Nicolas Lainez
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Queer Cinema from Vietnam at Viet Film Festival in Orange, California
Finding Phong was first shown last year at the Hanoi Cinematheque, to a packed house of mostly young Vietnamese and a number of older Vietnamese as well as foreigners. The film is a remarkable documentary, a very intimate sharing of a young person's life-changing experience in a quest to be the person she truly is.
Equally remarkable, for many of us foreigners, is the warm and endearing portrait of Phong's family, the older brother, sister-in-law, and especially Phong's aging mother and father. Both in their eighties, the parents live in poor and rural Viet Nam, traditionally and timelessly. They might be expected to face a troubling and puzzling range of emotions -- anger, denial, rejection -- on realizing the path their son, about to be their daughter, has chosen.
However, the filmmakers' close and intimate portrayal of the parents' adjustment, their processing of the new reality they're facing and the unwavering love and support they give to Phong, offer a revealing look at aspects of Vietnamese family life, culture, and pride that are rarely seen by foreigners.
The story includes humor as well -- with stereotypes, sexual innuendo, and conventional "wisdom" regarding various social taboos eliciting knowing laughter from an appreciative Vietnamese audience.
Phong, with her elderly mother, have gone on to become persuasive and effective advocates before Viet Nam's National Assembly, speaking out for reforms in Viet Nam's laws regarding same-sex relationships and gender.
CHUCK SEARCY
============================================
CHUCK SEARCY
International Advisor, Project RENEW
Tư Vấn Viên Quốc tế, Dự án RENEW
Vice President, Veterans For Peace Chapter 160
Phó chủ tịch, Cưu Chiến Binh vì Hoà Bình Chương 160 (Hòa Bình)
Co-Chair, NGO Agent Orange Working Group
Đồng Chủ tịch, Nhóm làm việc Phi chính phủ về Chất độc da cam
71 Trần Quốc Toản, Hà Nội, Việt Nam
Mobile +8 490 342 0769
Skype chucksearcy
Email chuckusvn@gmail.com<mailto:chuckusvn@gmail.com>
Web http://landmines.org.vn<http://landmines.org.vn/>
Web http://veteransforpeace.org
Web http://www.ngocentre.org.vn/workinggroups/agentorange
============================================
On Sat, Apr 16, 2016 at 8:23 AM, Nicolas Lainez <niklainez@gmail.com<mailto:niklainez@gmail.com>> wrote:
Dear list,
The film Finding Phong that is screened at VAALA’s festival is incredibly powerful. It is a truly intimate, sensitive and touching documentary that follows the struggle of Phong, a young man living in Hanoi, as he transforms into a woman in Thailand. It received the prestigious Grand Prix Nanook-Jean Rouch at the Festival Jean Rouch in France. The filmmakers, Swann Dubus and Tran Phong Thao, have recently made another film about AIDS and drug-use among the Tai people, called "Up the Hills, Down the Valley" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3Au1cfBnCM).
There is another very powerful cinéma vérité documentary film about transgenders in Vietnam which has received less attention:
"Madame Phung’s Last Journey" (http://icarusfilms.com/new2015/mme.html). This film takes the viewer on a year-long ride with an itinerant troupe of cross-dressing performers, led by Madam Phung, as they travel the remote southern regions and central highlands. From change rooms, to on-stage performances, to time spent in tour buses, Vietnamese filmmaker Nguyễn Thị Thấm develops a remarkable and intimate rapport with the performers. They share their fears, expose their vulnerabilities, and talk about the challenges of being gay in Vietnam: including employment discrimination and dealing with audiences who might just as easily throw rocks at the performers as try to hit on them during the show. This film addresses many issues that are under-researched in Vietnam including indebtedness, informal finance, gambling, astrology, stigma and violence, and the creation of families and fictive kinship bonds for solidarity and mutual help purposes.
Best wishes,
Nicolas Lainez
IRIS/EHESS
Paris/Singapore
Le 16 avr. 2016 à 08:56, Dan Tsang <dtsang@uci.edu<mailto:dtsang@uci.edu>> a écrit :
Two features and one short depict queer cinema from Vietnam are will be screening Sunday, 17 April 2016 at VAALA<http://www.vaala.org/>'s Vietnamese Film Festival<http://www.vietfilmfest.com/festival/program-schedule/> that has just opened at the AMC 30 (The Outlets) in Orange, California.
See blog: http://subversities.blogspot.com/2016/04/queer-cinema-from-vietnam-at-vietnamese.html
dan
Daniel C. Tsang
Distinguished Librarian
Data Librarian and Bibliographer for Asian American Studies,
Economics, Political Science, Orange County documents (interim)
468 Langson Library, University of California, Irvine
PO Box 19557, Irvine CA 92623-9557, USA
1 949 824 4978 (Tel); 1 949 824 0605 (Fax), dtsang@uci.edu<mailto:dtsang@uci.edu> (E-mail)
Office hours: 4-4:30 p.m. Fridays when on campus, or by appointment
My Subject Guides: http://libguides.lib.uci.edu/profile.php?uid=2616
_______________________________________________
Vsg mailing list
Vsg@u.washington.edu<mailto:Vsg@u.washington.edu>
http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/vsg
_______________________________________________
Vsg mailing list
Vsg@u.washington.edu<mailto:Vsg@u.washington.edu>
http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/vsg
Nhu Miller <trantnhu@gmail.com>
Apr 18, 2016, 7:42 AM
to Minna, Vietnam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWxttO6QpMY
T.T. Nhu
Vsg] Finding Phong
vsg-list-archive
Nhu Miller <trantnhu@gmail.com>
Wed, Apr 6, 2016, 4:54 PM
This is a brilliant and unusual movie about Phong who has
a sex change. It's showing in Southern California. The movie
was made by Tran Phuong Thao (a disciple of Jean Roche)
and her husband Swann Dubus.
(I just found it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWxttO6QpMY)
But the film makers will be there on April 17th.
The screening of our feature documentary FINDING PHONG
Will be SUNDAY, APRIL 17 at 11:00 am
at VietFilmFest 2016
At AMC 30 in Anaheim
ORANGE
T.T.Nhu
Phong grew up in a small town in the center of Vietnam - the youngest of six children. From the time he was a young boy, Phong felt like he was a girl with a mismatched boy's body. Not until he moved to Hanoi to attend university at age 20 did Phong discover that he was not the only one in the world with this predicament. His dream to 'find himself' by physically changing sex becomes a reality several years later. The movie follows Phong's struggle during these years, with excerpts from his intimate video journal, along with his encounters with family, friends and doctors - all of whom must come to terms with the boy's determination to become a complete girl.
Directors' bios:
Swann Dubus (b.1977, France) studied literature and cinema in Paris III university and completed a PhD about intimacy in cinema. He has been filming and directing documentary films since 2000. Swann has worked in both Europe, Africa and Asia. He now lives and works in Hanoi, Vietnam. Filmography includes:
1970-1989 (documentary, 65’) Cinéma du Réel 2000.
Lettre à L. et à elles toutes (documentary, 17’) FID Marseille 2003, GNCR Award.
L. Ville (documentary, 70’) Cinéma du Réel 2006.
With or without me (documentary, 80′) DOK Leipzig 2011, Torino IFF 2011, DMZ Doc Korea (winner of the international competition)
Finding Phong (documentary, 92′)
Tran Phuong Thao (b,1977, Vietnam) initially studied foreign trade and interpretation in Hanoi , but in 2001 she moved to France to fulfill her ambition of becoming a professional filmmaker. She acquired her Masters in Documentary Directing at the Université de Poitiers, France in 2004. She now lives and works in Hanoi.
Filmography includes:
Worker’s Dream (documentary, 52′) Cinéma du Réel 2007, Pierre and Yolande Perrault Award
With or without me (documentary, 80′) DOK Leipzig 2011, Torino IFF 2011, DMZ Doc Korea (winner of the international competition)
Finding Phong (documentary, 92′)