Submit Film

Submission deadline for Viet Film Fest 2019 has passed. Selection will be announced at the end of September at the latest. Thank you for your interest and support. See you in October.

Viet Film Fest

2 weeks ago

Have you ever wondered who are the people behind those wonderful and lively photos you have seen all month long????
Our photography team members have done a great job capturing the right spontaneous moment and we would like to introduce them to you !!!!! Check them out and give them a holler for your photography needs !!!!!!

Andy Mai - Team Leader
Avish Ngo
Chau Nguyen aka Jane Ng
Derek Ngo
Derek Nguyen at Derek’s Photograph
MacTavish Vo
May Nguyen
Tommy Tr Dương at @TomTomMedia ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Viet Film Fest

3 weeks ago

We are ready for the special screening of Song Lang! (Actually, almost ready - where’s Leon Le?)😜 ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

Viet Film Fest

3 weeks ago

A wonderful Song Lang 's review by our very own Technical Specialist!!!!!!

www.vietnamesecinemablog.com/2019/10/30/song-lang-should-life-imitate-art/

As a kid growing up in South Vietnam, I was very sickly. There were childhood experiences I never got to have because of being ill all the time, especially when there were festivities in the village. One time I had jaundice and vomited almost everything I ate. When a traveling troupe visited our village, my parents forbid me to go. So I just stayed home watching my brothers and sister as they were leaving the house to see the show. Without them, our house became so quiet and cold. Laying in bed, I listened to the faint echo of "Vọng Cổ" singing from a distance. That, along with a fever, put me in a delirious state of feeling abandoned by my family. Of course in reality, they never neglected me. It was just my childish feeling of being left out when I was bedridden back then. There is a scene in Song Lang where two characters talk about time travel. Watching this movie transports me back in time to the early 90s to relive those emotions of isolation and loneliness all over again.

I won't share details about Song Lang's story-line. Much has been talked about that in other writings. However, some technical aspects of the film, particularly its sensible cinematography and its very thoughtful sound design, deserve more attention. Song Lang achieves exceptionally in these areas. It's a movie you must see on the big screen with an enveloping sound system.

The first thing you notice about the film's visual is its 4:3 aspect ratio, a framing standard that is much narrower than the typical widescreen format. The cinematographer, Bob Nguyen, wants the audience to feel as if they are watching TV in the early 90s. Back then, there were no widescreen LCDs. The rise of CRT television sets were putting live theaters out of business. This confined framing I think gives the film a very claustrophobic effect. Characters are in your face, especially during close ups. You see all the nuances in their facial expressions. Vietnam is a small country geographically. So everything has to be smaller in scale. Song Lang's landscape is all cramped up. Cluttered houses are built next to each other. Streets are narrower. Even when people talk, the distance between them seem to be a little closer. The smaller width in the picture size brings the image closer to the viewers. If you notice carefully, many close-up shots have characters' faces off-center. Behind their heads are unoccupied space as if they are running "away" from something as opposed to looking at someone when they talk. In other compositions, characters are at the bottom edge of the screen as if being weighted down by an overwhelming vacancy from above, suggesting a heavy burden. Now I understand why the film's onscreen subtitles need to be as low as possible to not cover important details in the framing.

With color, Song Lang is tinted with a sepia tone. Different shades of red are used symbolically. Phung, one of the two main characters in the film, has pinkish lips and rosy cheeks indicating his sexual awakening. On the other hand, a house vandalized by dark red paint foreshadows tragedy. The film is full of recognizable scenery populated by people and objects belonging to that time period. Characters live in places such as cafe, theater, streets, and video game shops. Objects littered in these scenes reminiscing of the early 90s everyday life - messy dangling street power lines, sandals, motorbikes, barred windows, cigarettes, etc. Most importantly are the faces of the supporting actors. They look like they belong in this time and place. The wrinkles on their foreheads, their crooked teeth, unkempt hair, single eyelids, and raggedy clothing. Everything has this disheveled aesthetic rarely seen in Vietnamese films nowadays. All of this gives the viewers who are familiar with this era tremendous nostalgia. Moreover, it introduces new audience to an obsolete generation in Vietnamese history long forgotten.

Song Lang's sound design is equally important as its visual. For authenticity, Dinh Cao Tung (audio mixer), painted the film's sound canvas with a familiar ambience. The noises of TV and radio broadcast implies a change in Vietnamese's way of life that leans toward domesticity. On the street, we hear state-run propaganda through public speakerphones. Motorbikes rumble through tight alleyways. In the background is Ton That An's musical score of tendered violin interceded by mysterious and offbeat guitar strings, which adds to the languid vibe of the movie.

The film opens with a bell sound in a Buddhist temple. Then, we hear the knocking sound of the Vietnamese musical instrument called Song Lang, which is also the title of the movie. Similar to a wooden fish used to keep the rhythm during Buddhist chant, this tiny drum keeps the beat going in "Cải Lương", Vietnamese folk opera. The sound of Song Lang makes the movie rather spiritual.

Vietnamese folk opera is distinctive for its use of Vọng Cổ, which means "longing for the past". Singers of Vong Co needs to sing continuously for a very long time without stopping to take a breath. They put all their emotions into the voice by modulating the tonal range of each word. This result in a very expressive performance often extremely melancholic to derive emotional reaction from the spectators. There are two types of Cai Luong, one is about modern stories and the other re-enacts ancient tales. The Cai Luong in this movie is the latter. The main characters in Song Lang are Dung and Phung. Both men are lonely and feeling forlorn about their pasts, desperately yearns for a human connection in the present. Isaac, a Vietnamese pop singer, plays Phung with a full character arch. Notice that when we first hear him sings Vong Co on stage, he sounds harsh. However, as the plot advances and his character grows, he sounds much more emotional and elegant. Imagine how much real life experience Vong Co singers need to have in order to bring out the best performance. Unlike the eloquent and effeminate actors in Cai Luong, the film's other main character, Dung, is an archetype of Vietnamese masculinity. We can hear it in the way he talks. He spits out short burst of fragments with a monotonous tone further enforcing his repressed feelings and his insecurity. His mumbling reminds me of Ennis Del Mar from Brokeback Mountain.

The contrast between Dung's spoken dialogues and Phung's singing in Cai Luong reaches a climax in the film's poignant ending. For me, the film's conclusion asks the question - should life imitate art? Even if what happens in art is tragic and painful. Is it worth it to influence real life based on events in art? What makes the film even more heartbreaking is to think of what could have been if things had turned out differently. There is no easy way out and karma is always lurking around the corner. Before the credits roll, we hear Dung's narration about his life. I do agree with him that "life is life" and that's fine. This is the power of cinema, and Song Lang is magical.

Song Lang will have its special screening on November 2, 2019 at AMC Orange 30 at the Block in Orange County, Southern California.

Reserve your tickets today by visiting

vietfilmfest2019.ticketleap.com/song-lang/

For further details on the behind-the-scene making of the film, check out Leon Le's book at www.songlangbook.com/" ... See MoreSee Less

Photo

View on Facebook

View on Facebook

We are proud to be a central platform for the voices of Vietnamese filmmakers and stories about the Vietnamese people. Viet Film Fest welcomes your support in our collaborative project to use cinema as a tool for spotlighting our diversity of voices.

Website created by Jennifer Pham

VAALA Presents Viet Film Fest 2019

Viet Film Fest is possible because of the generous donations of our sponsors. Become a sponsor today.