This was announced by the director of the Hanoi Goethe Institute, Almuth Meyer-Zollitsch at a press conference in Hanoi this morning.
The festival’s theme, ‘A Country without Documentaries is like a Family with no Photo Albums’, was inspired by a statement of the famous Chilean film director Patricio Guzman.
The event will host seven films from seven European countries, Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Poland and Denmark, plus seven Vietnamese films produced between 2003 and 2010 by the National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio (NDSFS).
One European and one Vietnamese film on the same cultural or social theme will be shown each night during the festival. The selected films will focus on major cultural and social issues in contemporary life, such as the preservation of traditional art forms, migration and the lives of immigrants, urban planning, traffic and the gap between rich and poor.
“Although the two films screened each night share a common theme, they will be presented using different approaches and styles, providing the audience with a multifaceted and comprehensive look at the same issues at the same time.”, said Franck Pezza, chief representative of the Wallonia-Brussels Delegation to Vietnam.
The event has been held since 2009 by the NDSFS and the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) network in Vietnam.
In the three years since its creation, the event has become a rendezvous for Vietnamese and European film makers to share their experiences in film making as well as for fans of documentary films to enjoy the diversity of the documentaries, which have seen a healthy development in recent years.
Tickets are free of charge and can be obtained from the NDSFS, 465 Hoang Hoa Tham street, Ba Dinh district in Hanoi and at the Institute of Cultural Exchange with France, 31 Thai Van Lung street, District 1 in Ho Chi Minh City.
