US magazine honours Vietnamese photographers

Making fish net by Quang Tran.

American National Geographic Magazine has honoured photos taken by Vietnamese photographers for overall excellence in print magazine photography on a number of occasions in 2014.

In March, a best photo title went to Vietnamese photographer Ly Hoang Long for a photo “golden net”, depicting a fisherman catching fish in the early morning hours. The photo was taken at Cua Dai Beach in Hoi An City.

In February, photographer Quang Tran won first prize for a photo describing two women sewing fishing nets at a fishing village in Ninh Thuan province.

A photo of Son Doong Cave in Quang Binh province– the largest cave in the world – taken by Ryan Deboodt was the most favoured in February.

In January, a photo of Vietnamese farmers harvesting salt, taken by Ly Hoang Long, was among the most beautiful from 187,475 entries.

Photo exhibition gives insight into Italian life

A photography exhibition entitled “Nocturnal Memory. Milan and Rome” will officially open at the Italian cultural centre in Vietnam Casa Italia (Italy House), at 18 Le Phung Hieu Street in Hanoi on May 12.

“Nocturnal memory” is a collection of images and words, photos and excerpts - a tale about Milan and Rome but also an abstract portrait that could depict any city in any country throughout the world.

The artwork revolves around nighttime, the eternal backdrop of mankind, a universal theme experienced and decrypted by photographer Paolo Belletti and writer Giulia Cavaliere based on the different bonds and relationships that these artists have forged with the two Italian cities.

Through the darkness of night, the project unveils the surprising hidden life of empty urban spaces, paving the way for a new aesthetic and cognitive experience for the viewer and, possibly, for a new relationship with the city itself.

Paolo Belletti is a freelance photographer. He works for a number of Italian magazines such as Il Corriere della Sera, L’Espresso, Io_Donna, Living, and Wu Magazine. His projects have been exhibited in Milan, Rome, Xi an and Muscat.

Giulia Cavaliere studied literature focusing on the history of cinema, theater and media languages. She has published two short stories.

Artist probes links between humans and animals

French artist Nadege David's drawings and sculptures on show at a solo exhibition that opened in HCM City yesterday examine and question the connection between humans and animals.

The exhibition is called Ho®s-Sol (Soil-Less®), a reference to the displacement of animals from their soil and native state of being, transformed into mere objects, functional only in a multitude of categories made up by mankind, organiser Galerie Quynh says.

"The ® alludes to this humanised identification and objectification of animals, and their metamorphosis into merchandised property."

Nadege's works are inspired by a deep interest in anatomy, science, philosophy, human behaviour, and socio-political and economic realities.

Her watercolour and ink drawings take shape and evolve organically, mimicking the growth of living beings.

Artwork titles have been arranged and numbered like labels for scientific specimens.

In Domestic Animal, the animal is represented in its domesticity, with children contending a cute creature that becomes akin to a stuffed toy or a child riding a lion that has lost its fierce nature.

Nadege's sculptures, continuing with this notion of death, are a mortuary collection of insects and other small creatures on colourful deathbeds sealed in glass vases.

Born in 1975 in Poissy, France, Nadege got an MA in political philosophy from the University La Sorbonne, Paris, and an MA in contemporary political philosophy from the University of Paris VIII.

She has exhibited in various group exhibitions, including at Galerie Vue Privee in Singapore and Galerie Quynh. Nadege lives and works in HCM City.

The exhibition runs until June 7 at Galerie Quynh. Level 2, 151/3 Dong Khoi Street, District 1.

A small area in the northwest of Vietnam called Dien Bien Phu became one of the most popular topics for international film-makers in the 20th century and beyond.

The Dien Bien Phu victory not only made the French admire the Vietnamese people but is also a symbol of liberation to colonised peoples around the world. It seems that because of its magnitude, only cinematic powers such as France, the US and Russia can make films about this victory. As a prisoner of war, French director Pierre Schoendoerffer, who could not forget his horrible memories at Dien Bien Phu, decided to come back to Vietnam in 1992 to make a film entitled Dien Bien Phu.

Although trying to view Dien Bien Phu from a distant time and place through the eyes of such low-profile characters as American journalist Howard Simpson (played by Donald Pleasence) and violinist Béatrice Vergnes (played by Ludmila Mikaël), Schoendoerffer spent most of his story depicting the desperation of French soldiers counting down to the moment of their defeat. From the view of a French man who regarded this war as a gamble, the director became obsessed with images of French soldiers struggling in the midst of guns, blood, rain and mud.

He was brave to paint the portraits of soldiers in the French Union army, which consisted of white, black, indigenous and Thai ethnic men who all shared the same fate. The images of advisory officers beside their desks stand in stark contrast with the images of French soldiers mired at Dien Dien Phu. Perhaps his heart shared the same beats with those who died here. Viewers can recognise some small bright spots in the spirit of the professional army, but at the end of the film, the director still had to acknowledge his respect for the Vietnamese people and their army. The film is a memorial of the more than 8,000 French soldiers who died during the battle of Dien Bien Phu and a tragic hymn to the French people. Pierre Schoendoerffer once said that he produced the film to remind the French not to make any more mistakes and not to forget their humiliating defeat at Dien Bien Phu.

In 1999, American producers Dave Flitton, Andy Aitken and Justin McCarthy made a documentary series called Battlefield Vietnam. They spent a great deal of time and effort on collecting materials, writing a screenplay and making an epic in pictures with thorough analysis of the American defeat in Vietnam. In the first episode, ‘Dien Bien Phu – The Legacy’, the film-makers clearly outlined the French defeat at Dien Bien Phu as well as America’s blatant intervention in Vietnam by providing weapons and logistics to the French. This means that the US government had implicitly replaced France in Vietnam in the so-called mission to prevent the spread of communism from the Soviet Union and China to Southeast Asia.

From the Western point of view, the film-makers certainly tried to justify US involvement in Vietnam, but with the image of General Vo Nguyen Giap chosen as the poster for the first episode, US film-makers implied that the US would inherit a legacy of defeat in Vietnam like the French before them.

Daniel Roussel, another French director, also made a documentary about Dien Bien Phu entitled La bataille du Tigre et de l'Éléphant (The Battle between a Tiger and an Elephant). From 1980 to 1986, he was a reporter for the L'Humanité in Vietnam. In making this documentary, the French director used President Ho Chi Minh’s metaphor describing the battle at Dien Bien Phu between the Vietnamese soldiers and people and the French as a battle between a dynamic tiger and a large but slow-moving elephant.

The central character of this documentary is General Vo Nguyen Giap, whom Roussel had researched extensively from different angles. The director also compared the strategies of the two sides through authentic materials and General Giap’s in-depth analysis. The vivid footage filmed at Dien Bien Phu and Muong Phang, as well as images of General Giap’s simple life, showed viewers the true portrait of a great general and a peace-loving and patriotic people.

Perhaps the documentary that has left the strongest impression on Vietnamese audiences is Vietnam, a film by Russian director Roman Karmen. He was quoted by Vietnam researcher Anatoly Sokolov as saying that, “We understand that this mission is very difficult because our film crew will travel to a country is completely foreign, although their spirit and emotions are very close to those of the Soviet Union. Moreover, there are not many newspapers and books for us to learn about Vietnam. We only have one book by a French author”.

From Karmen’s journals, Sokolov concluded that, “Thanks to the help of Uncle Ho, Karmen completed the filming of the scenes set in Dien Bien Phu after the campaign had ended, such as those where President Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen Giap give commands and the Vietnamese soldiers advance to attack General de Castries’ bunker. In Vietnam, director Karmen paid special attention to the scene when thousands of French prisoners of war march past the camera as the symbol of the defeat of French colonialism in Vietnam in particular and the world in general”.

It can be affirmed that Dien Bien Phu is still one of the rich sources of inspiration for film-makers of major cinemas around the world.

With the passage of time, history usually repeats itself by accident. The film-makers, with their deep insights, remind humankind to respect one another: to respect minority peoples while developing great cultures. No enemy can threaten a people united under a lofty ideal.

Scar of Life helps kids with heart disease

The project “Scar of Life 5” will kick off on May 20 at the White Palace Convention Center, featuring a night gala of art, food and music with the oratorio “Silk” by musician Quoc Bao.

Artist Thanh Loc, and singers Nam Khanh, Ai Phuong, Hoang Bach, Nguyen Ha, Quyen Ngo, Thao Trang and Dam Vinh Hung will be joining the event. The show is aimed at raising funds to help poor children with heart disease across Vietnam.

The ticket price is US$100 or VND2.2 million.

To prepare for this project, Ngo Thanh Van, the ambassador of Heartbeat Vietnam, came to Myanmar and brought a valuable pearl statue of the Buddha for a charitable auction.     

On the past four years, Scar of Life donated a lot of money to save 716 children born with heart disease.

White Palace is located in 194 Hoang Van Thu Street, Phu Nhuan District, HCMC.