Ici Vietnam Festival: Gathering Place for Filmmakers of Vietnamese Origin

Every October, young overseas Vietnamese filmmakers gather at the film festival “Ici Vietnam Festival - Spécial Cinéma” to share with the public their accomplishments.

This year, the festival took place in Paris from Oct. 22 – 24. It was the fourth time the annual event was held to introduce cinematic works by professional and amateur filmmakers of Vietnamese origin. 15 films were shown in three days, demonstrating the diversity and liveliness of Vietnam’s film industry and giving the audience insights into the unique aspects of cultural integration.

The organizers and young directors attending the ''Ici Vietnam Festival 2021 - Spécial Cinéma''. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

The works shown at the festival are diverse in contents and methods of demonstration, with rich storylines that reflect normal life or fantasy world and a wide range of characters, events and psychological progression of the Vietnamese communities across the world.

The films selected for the festival were screened at the Le Grand Action cinema in Paris’s District 5, attracting the attention of Parisians.

After the show, the audience had an opportunity to talk to the directors and film crews, engage in discussion and exchange about the contents, meanings and findings of the films shown.

Young directors attending “Ici Vietnam Festival 2021 - Spécial Cinéma” exchanged experiences. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

On Oct. 24, in particular, the audience could watch selected films for free at the café-ciné and video lab sessions at the headquarter of Foyer Vietnam, a non-profit association serving individuals and associations with a link with the Vietnamese community.

Held for the first time in 2018 under an initiative by the General Union of Vietnamese in France, Ici Vietnam Festival aims to foster the creativity of overseas Vietnamese in various fields from cinema, music, contemporary arts and dancing to literature, soccer and food.

Sylvie Gadmer, a member of the 2021 festival’s organizing committee, noted that the goal of Festival Ici Vietnam was to honor the cultural values, authors and artists of Vietnamese origin. For this reason, the festival had a wide range of activities.

According to Gadmer, aside from the annual film festival, which was held for the fourth time in 2021, Ici Vietnam Festival also organized other events to share with the public the cultural values that resulted from the integration of Vietnamese culture and viewpoints with those from other cultures and perspectives around the world.

The public attended the café-cine and video lab sessions held during the Ici Vietnam Festival 2021, at the headquarter of Foyer Vietnam. Photo: Vietnam News Agency

She added that the festival organizers hoped to introduce the selected works not only to the overseas Vietnamese communities but also to the local people. They would also hope to welcome the participation of artists in France and other countries, Gadmer added.

On this principle, Ici Vietnam Festival has received works by artists of Vietnamese origin in France, the US, UK, Germany and even Vietnam.

According to Jerôme Tham Vo My, a member of the organizing committee, other events of the Ici Vietnam Festival, except for the film festival, were held flexibly in different places throughout the year.

In June, the Vietnamese cuisine festival was held successfully in Paris. In November, a meeting will be held with the American Vietnamese director and writer Nguyen Thanh Viet, a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board. Thanh Viet was also a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2016 with the work “the Sympathizer,” published in 2015.

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