Vietnamese filmmakers are spending long hours abroad seeking funds to make movies.
"We must have patience," award-winning director Bui Thac Chuyen said recently.
This year’s Choi Voi (Lonely) by Chuyen received 130,000 euros (US$211,000) from Fonds Sud Cinema of France and Hubert Bals Fund from the Netherlands. Chuyen will start making the film next month.
Chuyen sent the script of Lonely to Japan in 2005 to seek financial assistance from NHK broadcasting corporation but it was denied.
"I then sent Lonely to France after failing to get assistance from the State," Chuyen said.
"The script must be translated into French and English. I was asked to have the translations improved several times and then I had to meet fund organisers many times in the past three years to explain the film’s content."
"Lonely beat more than 60 scripts by filmmakers around the world to get financial assistance, " he said.
Chuyen’s Song Trong So Hai (Living in Fear) won an award for best new talent at the ninth Shanghai International Film Festival in 2006.
In the same year, the film won the annual Golden Kite award for best film from the Viet Nam Cinematography Association.
The film, which received funds from NHK, is about a former Sai gon regime soldier who earns a living by clearing unexplored mines to support his family of two wives and five children.
Phan Dang Di’s Bi, Dung So (Bi, Don’t Fear) is now one among 103 scripts sent by filmmakers around the world to the World Cinema Fund run by this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.
"The fund will announce the films selected for assistance in October," Di said.
In 2003, HCM City-based Giai Phong Film Studio invited Vinh Son to make the film Trang Noi Day Gieng (The Moon at the Bottom of a Well).
"I refused because I couldn’t make the film with only VN$700 million ($43,500) offered by the film studio," Son said.
"However, the interesting script attracted me," Son said. He brought the script to Belgium and France seeking assistance from several funds and other organisations.
Last year’s The Moon at the Bottom of a Well got 150,000 euros ($206,000) from Fonds Sud Cinema and 80,000 euros ($111,000) from Fonds Francophone, both of France.
The two funds have, in the last few years, financed many Vietnamese films including Me Thao Thoi Vang Bong (The Past Glorious Days in Me Thao) and Thoi Xa Vang (A Distant Past).
Set in Hue ancient royal capital, The Moon at the Bottom of a Well features the contemporary life of Vietnamese. Son said since it was not easy to get foreign assistance and when his film was denied, he was not disappointed.
"Hundreds of scripts around the world compete each year for aid from global funds. And only a few films are selected," he said.
However, he said that many Vietnamese films had managed to win the hearts of audiences in Vietnam and abroad with their innovative themes and content. "This will make it easier for film-makers to get foreign aid," he said.
(Source: Viet Nam News)
Tag: Festival , Hcm , Hcm City , Hue , International , Japan , Viet Nam , Vietnam , Vietnamese Filmmakers go abroad in search of funds - Vietnamese filmmakers
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