Screening: Documentaries

Sình, the Mud Village, leaning its shadow on the Perfume River, was founded sometimes in the XVth Century. It was not only a bunting merchant river port neighboring the City of Hu?, but also a cultural center of the old kingdom. Nobody knows when the handicraft of religious painting became the famous center for the people living far and near. Today, however, the Mud Village paintings are on the verge of losing its traditional characters.

Kien Thái Vuong's Mausoleum. Kien Thái Vuong is the reign name of Emperor Nguyen Phúc Hong Cai (1845-1876), who fathered three successive Emperors: Emperor Reign of Kien Phúc (1883-1884), Emperor Reign of Hàm Nghi (1884-1885) and Emperor Reign of Dong Khánh (1886-1888). Emperor Dong Khánh reigned for three year and passed away when he was just 25. Right after his coronation, Emperor Dong Khánh ordered the building of the mausoleum called Truy Tu, next to the tomb of his father. The Truy Tu mausoleum broke the ground in February 1888, and was basically completed by October that year. Emperor Dong Khánh led the ceremony of moving the altar of Kien Thái Vuong to the mausoleum.

The Hien Luong Bridge represents a part of the recent history of Vietnam, a symbol of separation and happiness, a twisting and turning of two individuals, and signifies on its body more than just one semantic connotation. Still a permanent anxiety of a human life, and of the creativity of artists: there underlies thoughts and pains of a past full of sufferings, and the blood and tears of the younger generations with a country of theirs full of hardship which they have never experienced, or just a fortune to hear, read or to be told about.

Directed by: Le Duc Hai & Le Ngoc Thanh

2)

Mourners for Hire
. Nobody knows when it came to life. From the time immemorial in the northern part of Vietnam, particularly in the country side there appeared an odd profession, in the context of a growing social movement of lavish funerals and festivities. The professional mourners for hire were infamously named "vultures feasting on rotten carcasses." Today, afterso many centuries of refinement it becomes more sophisticated as our society becomes more civilized. Mourners for hire in Vietnam seemed nowhere to be found for a long while, but now reemerge and appear everywhere under a multidimensional moralistic social character in front of the cameras of the film director.

Directed by: Tran Phuong Lan

Youth in Criminal Justice System: Youth at a youth correctional center live a different life from their homes. Will the required 24 month residency judgment gets them back smoothly into the society? What will the society, their families, and their schools will do to keep them from breaking the law again? This question will remain with the audience.

Directed by: Nguyen Sy Bang