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Film Festival
Following up on my previous message re: the Toronto Film Festival's
Vietnam Cinema event, here's their first press release. I'll be away
for a few days, so if you E-Mail me about the festival (or anything
else), it'll be a few days before I respond.
NATIONAL CINEMA PROGRAM
HONOURS VIETNAM
AT 21st ANNUAL TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
NEWS RELEASE
July 2, 1996
Toronto -- This fall, the Toronto International Film Festival again
breaks new ground when its National Cinema Programme focuses on Vietnam.
A dozen films will be featured and the Festival will welcome a
delegation of Vietnamese directors and film industry representatives.
The programme which features new films and works from the 60's, 70's,
and 80's mark the first time many of these films will be seen in North
America. As a co-sponsor for the programme, the Festival welcomes P.S.
Production Services. (A complete list of Spotlight films and confirmed
guests follows.)
Vietnamese cinema does not have a long history (the first feature was
made in 1959), but in recent years the country's filmmakers have been
gaining substantial international recognition. Tran Anh Hung's
Oscar-nominated 1993 feature THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA (which received
its North American Premiere here at the Toronto Festival) and his next
film, the award-winning CYCLO, marked the beginning of an international
reputation not only for Tran Anh Hung, but for Vietnamese cinema. This
year the Festival is proud to be one of the first international film
festivals in the world to present a spotlight programme dedicated to
Vietnam.
Festival programmer David Overbey comments, "As the country undergoes
major changes, including the creation of a free market economy and the
acceptance of international trade and culture, it seemed the time was
right to look at the national cinema of Vietnam. This programme can
tell us where Vietnam has been, where it is now and indicate where it
might be going."
In addition to CYCLO and SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA, the programme boasts
several films by Dang Nhat Minh, the country's most prolific and
(perhaps) most important director, who has always been able to overcome
technical and financial adversity through sheer talent. The sale
includes his most recent films: the marvelous coming-of-age story
NOSTALGIA FOR THE HOMELAND (1995) and THE RETURN (1994), a sort of
Vietnamese version of WAITING TO EXHALE. The values of North and South
collide as two women reminisce about the men in their lives. Audiences
will also be treated to several of the projects that placed Minh in the
front rank of Asian cinema, including the acclaimed THE GIRL ON THE
RIVER (1988). The film which demonstrates the epic scope of Minh's
understanding of Vietnamese culture follows a prostitute who saves a
Viet Cong soldier. Years later, he has become an important government
official, only to have the girl re-enter his life and expose a trail of
corruption and hypocrisy. The Vietnamese love and respect for the past
is explored in WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES (1984). A war widow cannot
tell her in-laws that her husband has died so she enlists the local
schoolteacher to write letters to her in order to disguise her husband's
death. The schoolteacher takes the opportunity to express his own love
for her, but the widow is only interested in one thing another meeting
with her dead husband.
GOING GONE (1996), the latest from Festival favourite Ho Quang Minh
(KARMA, WHITE PAGE), will also be featured. One of the programme
highlights will certainly be Nguyen Khac Loi's THE RETIRED GENERAL
(1988), a dark comedy about a war hero who returns home only to
encounter widespread petty corruption forcing him to wonder what exactly
he was fighting for. Other films include Le Dan's BLACK CACTUSSES
(1993) which focuses on the racism facing Vietnamese children of black
U.S. soldiers; Le Duc Thien's A QUIET TOWN (1986), a masterful comedy
about bureaucracy and small towns, wherein an injured bureaucrat is
carted from one town to another, with each village seeking to lay claim
to him; and Pham Ky Nam's TU HAU (1962), a drama set during the war,
focusing on a young woman's struggle to protect her children. Finally,
there's Nguyen Hong Sen's WILD FIELDS (1981), which recounts the
travails of a family who hid the Viet Cong and, as a result, are pursued
by the American military. Though the influence of Soviet Social Realism
is evident (and the portraits of the American soldiers border on
risible), the shimmering cinematography and breathtaking performances
make the film emotionally true.
The combination of recent and past works (many unfairly neglected in
North America) gives this National Cinema Programme unique historical
and cultural resonance and offers an eye-opening glimpse at one of the
world's most intriguing cultures.
The 21st Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-14 at the
Sheraton Centre Hotel.
PROGRAMME
BLACK CACTUSSES (d. Le Dan, 1993)
CYCLO (d. Tran Anh Jung, 1995)
THE GIRL ON THE RIVER (Dang Nhat Minh, 1988)
GOING GONE (Ho Quang Minh, 1996)
NOSTALGIA FOR THE HOMELAND (d. Dang Nhat Minh, 1994)
QUIET TOWN (d. Le Duc Thien, 1986)
THE RETIRED GENERAAL (d. Nguyen Khac Loi, 1988)
THE RETURN (d. Dang Nhat Minh, 1994)
THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA (d. Tran Anh Hung, 1993)
TU HAU (d. Pham Ky Nam, 1962)
WHEN THE TENTH MONTH COMES (d. Dang Nhat Minh, 1984)
WILD FIELDS (d. Nguyen Hong Sen, 1981)
CONFIRMED GUESTS
For more information please call: Steve Gravestock (416) 967-3731 x 2255
(By the way, I'm not Steve Gravestock, so don't expect him to know what
you're talking about if you say you saw this press release here!
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