In the program “Portrait”, Hanoi DocFest would like to invite the audience to meet individuals with many different backgrounds and get to know their stories: a family in Kham Thien Street waiting for their son to come home from prison after 18 years, an old man who is in love with languages, a guitarist who feels alone in the world, a girl who leaves the city to open an online bakery service, or families who come to the city in hope of curing their children’s illnesses. Each of the film focuses on portraying these characters, listening to their stories; together, they tell a bigger story of contemporary Vietnam.
PROGRAM
Portrait 1: 10 am Saturday, 11/ 11/ 2017
Hospital Apartment (2017, dir. Nguyễn Thanh Vân)
A group of people coming from different regions of Vietnam live in the same slumdog to cure their children’s illnesses. Their life is a struggle between a lack of material, physical health and emotional pressure. The film depicts a life of those who relentlessly fight against sickness.
The Gifts (2017, dir. Nguyễn Thanh Huyền)
Many people come to Inner Space, a non-profit center that helps people enrich their inner lives, to find ways to cope with the hurt that they are having. The film listens to the people and their stories.
Portrait 2: 5 pm Saturday, 11/ 11/ 2017
March 23rd (2017, dir. Phạm Thị Hảo)
This is a story about a family living on Kham Thien street, Hanoi. They have been waiting for their son to be shortly out of prison. 18 years away from the family and the normal life has created gaps in a person’s life that are hardly fulfilled.
The Turtle Slide (2016, dir. Kim Đức)
“The Turtle Slide” is a documentary about Judith Hansen’s journey to fulfill her dream of building slides in Hanoi – a vibrant capital but seriously lacking playground for children.
Portrait 3: 10 am Sunday, 12/ 11/ 2017
Dedicated to Grandpa Dieu (2016, dir. Hiền Anh)
This documentary depicts the everyday life of an elderly person, Mr. Dieu, in busy Hanoi city. He leads a simple life in a modest house with a blue wooden door on a small corner of a busy street. The documentary focuses on Mr. Dieu – a man with strong ambition – who used to work as a freelance interpreter at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the mid-1960s. He works very hard, translating books he likes, but he has never tried to publish any of them himself.
The Loner (2017, dir. Hoàng Việt Đức)
The Loner is a documentary film about an angle of a guitarist’s life – Thanh Da Nang. He has a special aptitude and passion for music, to the extent that he is willing to sacrifice his family life for music. The journey of this film is also a story of a middle-aged man lost and struggling with this life.
Huong Gau’s Kitchen (2017, dir. Trần Huyền Trang)
The film depicts the life of a young graduate who made the decision to come back to her hometown to start a business instead of staying in the city. With her passion for baking, she decided to work as an online baker.
