//Soft: Doc — SuperCut: After Languages

2022-09-09 - 2022-11-01

Topic: //Soft: Doc — SuperCut: After Languages
Moderator: Prof. Hsin-I, LIN (NYCU, IAA)
Director: Nguyễn Trinh Thi (Vietnam)
Screening: Everyday’s the Seventies (2018, 15min)、Eleven Men (2016, 28min)
Time: 2022/11/01 (Tue.) 14:20 — 17:20
Venue: HA Building1, R314, NYCU (no online meeting)

 

Agendas: 

14:00-14:20 Entrance
14:20-14:30 Opening: Introduce

14:30-14:45 Everyday‘s the Seventies (2018, 15min)
14:45-15:15 Eleven Men (2016, 28min)

15:15-15:30 Half-time

15:30-17:20 Post-screening Discussion
 

 

The event is mainly held in Chinese, and the movie’s language includes Vietnamese and English subtitles. For entrance notices, the event joins without registration, but considering the pandemic situation, participants must wear masks.

 

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About Nguyen Trinh Thi:

Nguyen Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based independent filmmaker and video/media artist. Her diverse practice has consistently investigated the role of memory in the necessary unveiling of hidden, displaced or misinterpreted histories; and examined the position of artists in the Vietnamese society.

 

Nguyen studied journalism, photography, international relations and ethnographic film in the United States. Her films and video art works have been shown at festivals and art exhibitions including Jeu de Paume, Paris; CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux; the Lyon Biennale 2015; Asian Art Biennial 2015, Taiwan; Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial 2014; Singapore Biennale 2013; Jakarta Biennale 2013; Oberhausen International Film Festival; Bangkok Experimental Film Festival; Artist Films International; DEN FRIE Centre of Contemporary Art, Copenhagen; and Kuandu Biennale, Taipei.

 

Nguyen is founder and director of Hanoi DOCLAB, an independent center for documentary film and the moving image art in Hanoi since 2009.

 

References: https://nguyentrinhthi.wordpress.com/about/

 

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Synopsis:

1. Everyday’s the Seventies

2018 | 00:15:00 | Three-Channel Video (This time is the single-channel version.) | Four-Channel Sound

 

Different versions of the same history – one personal, another depicted by cinema, the third described by the media – are laid on top of each other and collapsed. Mixing footage from 80s and 90s Hong Kong movies, with wire service footage of the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese refugee crisis in Hong Kong from the late 70s until 1997, with an interview with the owner of ‘Paul’s Records’ in Hong Kong, Everyday’s the Seventies continues to explore Nguyễn’s interests in gaps, holes and disconnections in between personal memories/history and other kinds of collective histories.

 

References: https://nguyentrinhthi.wordpress.com/2017/12/18/644/

 

2. Eleven Men

2016 | 00:28:00 | Single-Channel Installation | Sound

 

“Eleven Men” is composed of scenes from a range of Vietnamese classic narrative films featuring the same central actress, Nhu Quynh. Spanning three decades of her legendary acting career, most of the appropriated movies — from 1966 to 2000 — were produced by the state-owned Vietnam Feature Film Studio.

 

The film’s text was adapted from “Eleven Sons”, a short story by Franz Kafka first published in 1919, which begins with a father’s declaration: “I have eleven sons”, then describes each one of them in acute and ironic detail. Transposing the father’s voice of Kafka’s story, the film begins with a woman stating: “I have eleven men”.

 

with text adapted from Eleven Sons by Franz Kafka (translated by Willa and Edwin Muir)

 

References: https://nguyentrinhthi.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/eleven-men-2016/

 

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Organizers｜International Center for Cultural Studies, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan, International Institute for Cultural Studies, University System of Taiwan (IICS-UST), International Masters Program in Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, University System of Taiwan (IACS-UST)
Co-organizers｜Sensory Lab NYCU, Intercultural Cinema Studies NYCU
Sponsor｜Higher Education SPROUT Project, National Science and Technology Council