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| Lisa T, David N, Thuy N, Elizabeth V & Maria Tran out in Cabramatta |
In between “Quest for Jackie Chan!” and bread and butter work on Fredbird Entertainment’s production for SBS “Once Upon A Time in Cabramatta”, my little self discovery baby is “Vietnamese Mosaic”, a short film that is a collage of the many faces of the Vietnamese community. My film projects have always been diverse in styles and experimenting in different genres and this time, I wanted to do something a little bit personal as well as collective.
What I notice with Vietnamese people is that, they are not accustomed to being in front of the camera. Questions about what they feel and think are often answered with a slight reluctance. It was a similar experience I had while I was working on "Vietnamese Storycubes" - Intergenerational Project in 2009. Vietnamese people are generally, quite and hard working folk. Who might possibly don't believe in voicing up individual opinions. Hence, random questions here and there are often responded in slight suspicion from the older generations. But overall it was fun, fun and insightful in a sense that myself and my crew got a chance to hear out a cross section of the community, the young and the old, instead on sitting on assumptions, such as older people are rigid etc...In fact, some of the answers were quite unexpected and funny. One older "grandpa-looking" man response was "Girls!" when asked what he liked about the Vietnamese culture. O_o. Mine you, these "grandpa-looking" folks were my Dad's coffee drinking Cabramatta mob!
Technical wise, I’ve been getting better with the Canon 5D that I’ve been borrowing religiously from ICE to help me film, as well as other guerrilla equipment such as the car shades as reflectors etc…I’m enjoying having a tight regular crew around me (David Minh Tam Nguyen as well as Thuy Ng). So far, I’ve got a collection of 10 plus “vox pops” but I think its still not enough so it looks like I’ll have to make another “vox pop point” this week at Bankstown to collect more stories.
Anyhow, here's the deal for those who missed out. Myself and my tight team will be at Bankstown Arts Centre, 5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown from 2-3pm, following by myself and fellow filmmaker Vinh Nguyen at a light panel discussion on "What is a Western Sydney Story?" and other debates on being indie, ethnic and into the arts.
Do come on down (and don't be late!) and bring your mama and papa if you can!
Anyhow, here's the deal for those who missed out. Myself and my tight team will be at Bankstown Arts Centre, 5 Olympic Parade, Bankstown from 2-3pm, following by myself and fellow filmmaker Vinh Nguyen at a light panel discussion on "What is a Western Sydney Story?" and other debates on being indie, ethnic and into the arts.
Do come on down (and don't be late!) and bring your mama and papa if you can!
