The Vietnamese Film Festival kicks off tomorrow. As a media partner, OneVietnam will be at the festival on certain occasions to help promote the event. Below is a special interview with Director Khoa Nguyen, whose film 14 Days (“14 Ngay Phep” in Vietnamese) will screen this Friday, April 8, at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. Get to know Khoa and check out what he has to say on cinema, his path to film making and where Vietnamese films are heading in the future.
I was given the name Nguyen Trong Khoa because my parents value education. They wanted their children to have the opportunity they never had and sacrificed everything for this. To fulfill their wishes, I received a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art from UCLA, a Masters Degree in Screenwriting from USC, and a Masters Degree in Telecom Management from Golden Gate University.
Film has been a part of my life from a very young age. I had asthma when I was little and could not go out and play like the other kids. So I stayed inside watching TV and movies on the VCR. That’s when I knew I wanted to be a filmmaker.
Films took me places I couldn’t go. It allowed my imagination to run wild and soar. I often told made-up stories to my two brothers and the neighborhood kids. Everyone thought the stories were real and enjoyed them. That’s when I knew I had a knack for storytelling.
Whether it’s documentary or feature films, it’s about telling good stories that captivate and move an audience. I started with a documentary because it didn’t cost much to make. I was the writer, cameraman, Director, and editor. My brother Hung helped produce it while my friend Tom did the score and my friend Son mixed the sound. It was a blast to make. With feature films, a budget, a big crew, actors, etc are required. They take time to produce. Since I’m a storyteller, I see myself working in both arenas.
14 Days is a journey that every young overseas Vietnamese must make. We must see and experience first-hand where our parents came from, where we came from. Then we can come to appreciate who we are and what we have. Each of our experiences will be different, but it brings us in touch with our heritage and what makes us Vietnamese. Then we must do what we can to properly represent our people in whatever we chose to pursue.
This film explores what it means to be human. To experience life’s small pleasures, to do the wrong thing and realize the error in your ways, to appreciate a good conversation, to find joy in the moments, and togetherness in song, to find love in the most unlikely of circumstances. To not judge a book by its cover and to forgive because no one is perfect.
The future holds tremendous promise for Vietnamese cinema. The number of films produced this year (2011) will double compared to last year. The number of screens continues to grow as audiences flock to the theaters. Vietnamese films have raised eyebrows at film festivals throughout the world. Overseas Vietnamese audiences are making their way to theaters to support home-grown Vietnamese films. Overseas Vietnamese and local filmmakers are collaborating with one another to tell a diverse range of stories and put Vietnam on the map.
As a Vietnamese filmmaker one must be true to the story that he/she wants to tell. I’m just in the beginning stages of my film career so I can only comment based on what I’ve experienced. If you can tell a compelling story and create believable characters, then you have a shot anywhere. However, the road is different for everyone. My road took me back to Vietnam because I’ve always wanted to tell stories about Vietnamese people. It wasn’t practical to make Vietnamese films in the US because the audience for foreign language films is quite small. Then you’re dependent on the Vietnamese community to support you. And with the amount of bootlegging there is out there, making a Vietnamese film in the US is a crap shoot with the odds stacked against you. However, with a population of over 80 million strong, Vietnam provides a potentially large playing field for Vietnamese films. People are coming into more money and are looking for different forms of entertainment. Theater-going is making a strong comeback.
In order for Vietnamese films to succeed, we must go out and show our support. Only then can filmmakers find the budget to keep making them. One day, a Vietnamese film with Vietnamese stars will break through to the international market. One day, we will see the stories of us, our families, our parents, our people play to packed houses on the silver screens throughout the world. That day is coming soon to a theater near you.
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Purchase tickets for 14 days here.
I love this “what I’ve learned” format!