In an effort to bring high quality films and programming to the community, Viet Film Fest annually hosts community days during the festival.
- Free Screenings
- High School Students’ Day: “Let This Acceptance Take” (Friday, October 10 at 10 AM and 12:30 PM)
- As part of this year’s High School Student’s Day screenings, and welcomed for general audiences, this short film set boasts an array of filmic approaches. From animation and live-action to documentary and narrative, these films serve as examples of works that achieve incredible emotional and thematic depth in spite of logistical and structural constraints of the short film form.
This first half of this set begins with three women-led narratives in Someone Special (Một người đặc biệt), Little Bird, and Thru the Wire. Every work in the opening half of “Let This Acceptance Take” remarks on presenting one’s genuine self – whether to strangers or persons we consider to be friends. From an inventively animated piece, an inspiring work of social justice, and a portrait of digital youth, our protagonists realize that this is no easy life lesson to learn.
Like its fellow French animated short Someone Special, The Boy Who Cheated Death is the experimental, riotously-styled midpoint, transitioning into two films that more literally take this set’s title (and the idea of accepting oneself or others as they are at present) into account. From Me to You reflects upon the difficult relationship between daughter and mother – the tension heightened due to the former’s impending departure for university. Finally, Threads, the sole documentary short here, looks at the Montagnard (the indigenous people of Vietnam’s Central Highlands) refugee community as they have rebuilt their lives in North Carolina. For our filmmakers, in your fair minds, let this acceptance take.
- As part of this year’s High School Student’s Day screenings, and welcomed for general audiences, this short film set boasts an array of filmic approaches. From animation and live-action to documentary and narrative, these films serve as examples of works that achieve incredible emotional and thematic depth in spite of logistical and structural constraints of the short film form.
- High School Students’ Day: “Let This Acceptance Take” (Friday, October 10 at 10 AM and 12:30 PM)
- Free Screenings for Santa Ana residents
- “Remember My Forgotten Man” (Friday, October 10 at 4 PM)
- Masculinity is transforming as gendered norms and roles evolve. Sometimes, when considering a pressing sociopolitical issue, men are deemed “the problem” – ending a conversation without further contextualization, nuance, or a suggested remedy. This set – which involves male protagonists and subjects (We Were the Scenery’s co-subjects are a husband and wife) – depicts men pushed to the margins of society for reasons beyond their control. How do their notions of masculinity inform their responses to a situation and how is masculinity – especially in a Vietnamese diasporic context – evolving?
- Vietnamese men find themselves adrift, far from home, in Visa, Land of Opportunity, and From a Distance. In Visa, A Vietnamese student is desperate to extend his stay in America and resorts to desperate measures. The desperation is quieter, less urgent in Land of Opportunity and From a Distance (their subjects contending with alienation in Hong Kong and Germany, respectively) – but it remains just as potent as in the set opener. The Journal and We Were the Scenery examine Vietnam War-related trauma that manifests differently within an American veteran and a Vietnamese refugee couple. With the former film reopening unseen wounds, the latter recalls the couple’s experiences reenacting violent scenes for Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979) – a film unconcerned about Vietnamese suffering. The animated Xanh concludes this set, as a daughter asks her father why he refused to challenge a racist remark hurled towards him.
- “Remember My Forgotten Man” (Friday, October 10 at 4 PM)
- Like its fellow VFF short film sets, this set does not pretend to offer clear answers to its central question, but exists to further a necessary conversation.
- “Phim Femme” (Friday, October 10 at 4 PM)
- The concept of Vietnamese femininity is as charged with idyllic possibility as it is with prescribed notions of place and role. “Phim Femme” challenges this tension by celebrating the ongoing act of reimagining and expanding what the feminine can be. The set opens with Becoming Ruby, an inspiring documentary about Ruby Chopstix, Canada’s first drag artist-in-residence. As Ruby prepares for a major showcase, the film reveals a powerful convergence of queerness, culture, and community. From performance to intimacy, Cafuné offers a tender portrait of the solitude found within the world of exotic dance, and the quiet courage required to stay open in the pursuit of connection. That thread of vulnerability continues with Clementine, where a late-blooming trans woman gently confides in her friends, revealing long-held desires and evolving questions of womanhood.
- In a spirit of solidarity, My Sister honors the act of uplifting one another — bridging the feminine in communities across the globe. This sisterhood deepens in Yellow Balloon, where a young girl’s turbulent childhood unfolds into something universally resonant. The set closes with kitty_kitty_katxxx, a bold meditation on how one’s sexual freedom and self-expression can be hindered by its conflict with external perception. Through diverse visual languages, these filmmakers chart the map of the Vietnamese feminine, offering expansive and transformative ways of being within its ever-evolving terrain.
- Youth in Motion Screening (YIM)
Saturday, October 11 at 9:00 AM- Showcasing works from Youth in Motion: A Workshop for Emerging Filmmakers, an 11-week summer program that empowers young storytellers (high school through recent college grads) to develop filmmaking skills, explore identity, and use storytelling as a tool for social change.
- Showcasing works from Youth in Motion: A Workshop for Emerging Filmmakers, an 11-week summer program that empowers young storytellers (high school through recent college grads) to develop filmmaking skills, explore identity, and use storytelling as a tool for social change.
- Free Senior Screening – Ages 65 and Up
- Once Upon a Love Story (Ngày xưa có một chuyện tình)
Saturday, October 11 at 12:00 PM
Once Upon a Love Story (Ngày xưa có một chuyện tình), adapted from Nguyễn Nhật Ánh’s novel of the same name, is a poignant coming-of-age melodrama centered on three childhood friends entangled in an evolving love triangle. The story begins with Phúc (Nhật Hoàng)’s unexpected homecoming, where a chance encounter with a little boy stirs memories of his youth spent with his closest friend Vinh (Avin Lu) and his beloved Miền (Ngọc Xuân). Growing up in a tranquil countryside town, the trio formed a deep bond through childhood. While Vinh harbored affection for Miền, Miền fell in love with Phúc. Yet, amidst their unspoken desires, the innocence of first love and the intimacy of friendship blossom with sincerity. As they come of age, the weight of family responsibilities casts a shadow over their once carefree world.
- Once Upon a Love Story (Ngày xưa có một chuyện tình)
With the plot spanning from 1987 to 2000, the film gently evokes the ephemeral glow of youth. Director Trịnh Đình Lê Minh (VFF 2021’s Goodbye Mother) once more showcases his ability to coax emotional performances from a coterie of young actors. Through fresh performances, nostalgic settings, and meticulous cinematography, Trịnh quietly invites audiences to meditate on the power of love – its ability to endure, to wound, to transform, and ultimately, to heal.
