“Film is like the moon in a night sky. The moon looks the same to everybody, but the emotions it evokes are all different.” – Tsai Ming Liang

A pathway from today into film heritage, LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY is a series of events around Vietnamese cinema past, present and future. Initiated in 2020 by the TPD Centre for the Development of Movie Talents, the project’s 2021 edition takes place in HCMC between 11–18 April.
A different presence of a cinema thought long-familiar, made manifest through screenings, talks, exhibits: between the early short-film days of renowned filmmakers and the works of the emerging, between the ten years plus of independent documentary and decades of animation-making, between a visual exploration of the kisses of Vietnamese cinema and the faces captured on-screen all to do with a historical sea change.
The programmes of LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY 2020/2021 have been conceptualised and developed by members of TPD Centre’s first Film Curating course.
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“Travelling into Film is not unlike travelling into the Night. Watching a film in the dark is a lonely experience amongst lonely people. Privacy within the communal. A light emanating from the screen streaming down to and amongst viewers. Eras, moments, terrains, cities, the faces that we seek to lose ourselves in, as we’ve often done. The rhythms that transform our real-life rhythms. Like the night never getting old, the moon that could never be really captured, the films that were, are and will be, exist across multiple lives, before and in the fresh eyes of generations of audiences. Each spectator, themselves, is a cinematic history.” – Trương Quế Chi

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PROGRAMME
* Suggested donation amount for each screening: 30,000 VND. All donation will go toward the costs of realising the 2021 edition of the project.
* Membership pass: 120,000 VND/pass (granting entry to all six screenings).
* Online registration forms for all screenings will be available this week and the next.
* Languages for the films and the Q&A sessions: Vietnamese. A number of films feature English subtitles, which will be noted in the Facebook event pages respective screenings.

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ETERNAL SADNESS (PART 1): CONTEMPORARY VIETNAMESE SHORT FILMS
19:00 – 11.04.2021
Hoa Sen University (Charlie Chaplin Theatre) – 8 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, D1
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A trip down the memory lane revisiting the early short-film days of various contemporary Vietnamese filmmakers, both renowned and emerging.
Curatorial team: Bùi Duy Anh, Nguyễn Đức Minh, Trần Yến Nhi, Bùi Thạc Phong
The screening receives support and advice from XineHouse

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AND SO IT WAS: A PROGRAMME OF PRE-2000S VIETNAMESE ANIMATION
19:00 – 12.04.2021
Dcine – 6 Mạc Đĩnh Chi, D1
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A (re)visit of pieces of cinema that, to many, are at once ‘familiar’ and ‘strange’. From foxes, rabbits, bears, to bicycles and the moon; from hand-drawn works to cutout or doll-based animation – these are films that materialised before the digital age, films that were rooted in reality, at the same time harbouring dreams of flying.
The programme consists of:
Four animation works screening in their original versions
Three other animations works screening with new soundtracks – commissioned for the project RED BALLOONS: MUSIC FOR 20TH-CENTURY VIETNAMESE ANIMATION (LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY 2020).
Curatorial group: Nguyễn Minh Hải Anh, Nguyễn Hiền Anh, Nguyễn Diệp Thùy Anh, Nguyễn Thị Phương Giang, Nguyễn Thùy Trang, Nguyễn Phương Vân. Curator of the project RED BALLOONS: Trần Duy Hưng.

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ANOTHER LIFE: A PROGRAMME OF INDEPENDENT VIETNAMESE DOCUMENTARY
19:00 – 14.04.2021
Hoa Sen University (Charlie Chaplin Theatre) – 8 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, D1
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An exploration of a parallel world and the lives, faces and stories it holds. Different from ours, this world nevertheless serves as a mirror, through the reflection of which we contemplate our life, and that of the ones with us, and around us.
Curator: documentary filmmaker Phạm Thu Hằng

THE MONTH OF MAY, THE FACES IN TIME: TWO FILMS BY ĐẶNG NHẬT MINH AND VIỆT LINH
19:00 – 15.04.2021
Dcine – 6 Mạc Đĩnh Chi, D1
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THÁNG NĂM, NHỮNG GƯƠNG MẶT [The Month of May, The Faces in Time] (Đặng Nhật Minh, 1975)
CHUNG CƯ [The Apartment Building] (Việt Linh, 1999)
The faces of a new era. Through the close-ups existing in cinematic time. A conversation between two forms of artistic expression, from two different vantage points. A B&W documentary and a colour fictional work. Both take as their starting point the milestone of 30 April 1975.
Curator: Trương Quế Chi

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ETERNAL SADNESS (PART 2): CONTEMPORARY VIETNAMESE SHORT FILMS
19:00 – 17.04.2021
Hoa Sen University (Charlie Chaplin Theatre) – 8 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, D1
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A trip down the memory lane revisiting the early short-film days of various contemporary Vietnamese filmmakers, both renowned and emerging.
Curatorial team: Bùi Duy Anh, Nguyễn Đức Minh, Trần Yến Nhi, Bùi Thạc Phong
The screening receives support and advice from XineHouse

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TWO WORLDS: A FILM BY PHẠM VĂN NHẬN
19:00 – 18.04.2021
Hoa Sen University (Charlie Chaplin Theatre) – 8 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, D1
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Made in 1953 by the then Paris-based Phạm Văn Nhận, HAI THẾ GIỚI [Two Worlds] opens a window into the Vietnamese community in France during the times of the Indochina wars. The film was digitised and restored by Cinémathèque Française, premiering in 2014.

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KI}{INEMA: THE KISSES OF VIETNAMESE CINEMA
The works will screen in loop in a public space at Hoa Sen University (8 Nguyễn Văn Tráng, D1) through the week of LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY
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A moving-image dictionary of the kisses of the Vietnamese cinema. Throughout film’s history, the act of kissing not only expresses shades of emotions, feelings and connection, but also hints at transformations associated with each social and cultural period.
Via two found-footage works conceptualised by the KI}{INEMA curatorial group and directed by emerging filmmakers Đào Thu Uyên and Cao Việt Hoài Sơn, the project and the acts of intimacy it centers on, enters a public space in a Covid-19 world. An exploration of the connection between two human beings, from cinema to real life.
Curatorial group: Lý Thu Hà, Đỗ Thu Hiền, Vũ Thị Mai Phương, Ngô Xuân Quỳnh

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LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY

LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY 2020/2021 resulted from TPD Centre’s first Film Curating course (which took place between December 2019 and July 2020, supervised by curators Trương Quế Chi and Trần Duy Hưng, with sessions also led by critic Mai Anh Tuấn, communications specialist Nguyễn Đình Thành and guest speakers: curator/artist Nguyễn Quốc Thành, filmmaker Đỗ Văn Hoàng and curator/filmmaker George Clark. The series of events LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY form part of and conclude this programme.
LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY 2021 is co-organised by TPD and COLAB Vietnam. The project receives support from British Council Vietnam, Vietnam Film Institute, Hoa Sen University, Dcine Cinemas, XineHouse, and many other organisations and individuals based in HCMC and Hanoi.
LIKE THE MOON IN A NIGHT SKY 2021 forms part of the series of events IN PROGRESS (initiated and supported by British Council Vietnam).
Coordinators: Nguyễn Hoàng Phương, Trần Duy Hưng, Đào Linh Trang, Trần Hồng Trang
Co-organiser: COLAB Vietnam
Painter: Lê Hữu Bảo Phúc
Graphic designer: Trần Hoàng Duy, Đinh Hồ Hồng Cẩm
Technicians: Nguyễn Duy Thành, Phạm Đình Thiện

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