Thoughts on the First Installment of HIDDEN GENIUS

By Lee Ngo, Co-Director of Cinema Symposium 5
HIDDEN GENIUS started with a simple idea. One of the main objectives of Cinema Symposium is to bring Vietnamese films to the general public, but an increasing number of ethnic Vietnamese and others interested in Vietnamese history, culture, and society attend film school, inspired by accomplished artists and professionals such as Cinema Symposium’s panelists, past and present. This surge in interest, however, means there is even more competition among aspiring filmmakers for the few opportunities available to present their work. Since the next Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) is not for another year, why not hold a small competition during Cinema Symposium to discover that diamond in the rough, a “hidden genius” among the hundreds of aspiring filmmakers out there? The mission of HIDDEN GENIUS, thus, is to turn that main objective of Cinema Symposium on its head, bringing the aspiring public to the emerging Vietnamese film network.

HIDDEN GENIUS requires a five-minute limit on its submissions for three reasons. The logistical constraints of planning the Cinema Symposium panel to evaluate the films in one evening demanded that the length be a short as possible while sufficient enough to oresent a discernible story. Most film schools require students to produce a thesis, suggesting that there is a plethora of Vietnamese-themed and Vietnamese-produced short films out there in the world. In addition, the constrained length relates to the broader them of this year’s Cinema Symposium: getting in as well as staying in the business of media. Although everyone still privileges the feature-length, the rise of “new media” i.e. the Internet has produced shows that are just a few minutes per episode yet can still tell a quality story. Moreoever, most commercials remain either fifteen or thirty seconds in length. The point is that you can make a good film without becoming a producer’s nightmare, and opportunities such as HIDDEN GENIUS will likely reward you for your wise choices.

The selection committee of HIDDEN GENIUS nominated five short films out of seventeen submissions for the Grand Jury Award, sponsored by the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA), and the Audience Choice Award, sponsored by Coco Paris LLC. These films hail from four countries - the United States, Canada, Australia, and Vietnam - and, in spite of the specific qualifications of this competition, vary immensely in subject matter and aesthetics. The international range of the nominees is completely coincidental, as they were chosen strictly according to their technical bravado and artistic complexity. Patrick Bergeron’s “Loop Loop” is an experimental panorama filmed from a train ride in Hanoi. Justin Quoc Dang’s “Dice” is a thrilling lesson on the ephemeral nature of glory. Minh Duc Hoang Tran’s “Closed…!” (Nhắm…!” explores the mounting tension between an alienated wife and her oblivious husband. Vu Trung Hoa’s “Water Me” is a tongue-in-cheek memoir of a vacation in Vietnam among friends. Last but not least, Huy Vu’s “Thinking of You” is a lusciously-filmed vignette about a quirky flower shop girl and the elusive “object” of her desire. These films, deriving from the furthest corners from our base in southern California, demonstrate that Vietnamese is indeed a “globalized” nationality, hence the theme of this year’s Cinema Symposium 5 - “Operation Greenlight: Breaking into the World of Vietnamese Cinema.”