‘A Phu and his wife,’ a 1961 film, is one that I absolutely adore and is exactly what I was describing. The visual style is phenomenal, and some scenes are so distinctive. It featured the social life of the minority ethnic in the Northwest of Vietnam and the socialist revolution taking place in the background. Despite being titled ‘A Phu and his wife,’ the wife is the main character from start to finish, and she is an incredible heroine with a brave narrative arc throughout the entire movie.
What is your opinion regarding the storage and preservation of motion pictures in Vietnam?
Film legacy is an intriguing but challenging subject. The key difference between analogue film and digital cinema has been technology; it has been a revolution in the way we make this culture.
What is the significance of the heritage? Is it a matter of cultural memory? Is it a piece of art? Many individuals do not consider the film essential enough to preserve. Films decay faster than we imagined, and you must protect them, or they will become inaccessible.
Cinema was formerly more popular in Vietnam, with more interest from central institutions and stronger financial support. This explains why 1960s-1970s films have been preserved so well.
More effort remains to be done to address technical constraints and a lack of funds. With the help of expert archivists, the Vietnam Film Institute has gathered and preserved Vietnamese films. Its huge film collection is one of the best in Southeast Asia.
Still, they require additional funding since maintaining the archive is an expensive endeavour. Meanwhile, Vietnam has extremely limited fund for film preservation. I am also attempting to create an updated version of 'A Phu and his wife’ by digitising it in partnership with the Vietnam Film Institute and currently looking for funds to do so.
What advice do you give to Vietnamese filmmakers?
My recommendation is to be aware of limits and issues of using digital means. It is amazing – digital means provide us with a wealth of information in a timely manner and the ability to access things instantly from anywhere in the world. It is also less expensive, yet not made for long-term existence. Data is incredibly sensitive and vulnerable, especially in film industry.
The preservation of digital files is a major issue. It comes at a high price and there are no resources available currently, but everything is the same all around the world. Filmmakers should consider what their work is and how they see their work in the years to come. If a film is deemed timeless, like a work of art, even after 50 years, it cannot be attained by simply saving it on a hard drive.
