Reel to Real: International Networks: Panel Discussion

Bui Thac Chuyen (Director, LIVING IN FEAR; Associate Director, TPD), Timothy Linh Bui (Director,GREEN DRAGON); Co-founder, Wave Releasing), Abraham Ferrer (Co-Director, LAAPFF), Stephane Gauger (Director, OWL AND THE SPARROW; Co-founder, Wave Releasing), Nguyen Nu Nhu Khue (Executive Producer, HK Films), Michael Nguyen Thornton (Technologist/DIT/Post Supervisor), and Quynn Ton, Esq. (Entertainment Attorney/Producer (CAVITE).

SUNDAY, April 12th

3:00pm-5:00pm

Humanities Instructional Building (HIB) 135, UC Irvine

Bilingual (English and Vietnamese) moderated by Ysa Le and Ky-Phong Tran

Translator: Do Le Anhdao

Free admissions

Since 2002, when the cinema policy in Vietnam allowed for the establishment of private companies to produce films in the country, there has been a boom of “indie” films produced and released in Vietnam by diasporic filmmakers. Consequently international collaborations have formed to share the financial burdens of making films as well as to secure a larger transnational audience base. However, filmmakers continue to struggle due to the lack of an infrastructure to support independent filmmaking in Vietnam as well as in overseas communities. Creative strategies for public relations, such as the internet (on blogs, MySpace, YouTube, Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo!360, etc.), have been used by filmmakers to mobilize an audience for their films, network with others, and provide a means for grassroots advertising. Yet, internet use is still limited; as a result, venues such as these and distribution channels are major challenges in both Vietnam and the diaspora. The goal of the panel discussion is to provide the panelists and the audience opportunities to explore the ways one can create a larger international audience base via different methods of networking.