To Achieve The Goals Of The Cultural Diversity - The French Deployment

I met with M. Nicolas BOISSEZ at “L'ESPACE” in the “BUREAU AUDIOVISUEL ET MEDIA DU CENTRE CULTUREL FRANCAIS” in Hanoi. Brand new, “L'ESPACE” offers all the set of cultural facilities that, includes a 250 seats auditorium, a large exhibition room, a library and video library. It has opened its door last September. NICOLAS BOISSEZ is the Audiovisual attaché, thus in charge of the French files for the Cinema and the audiovisual in Hanoi. His mission also includes; the cooperation with the Vietnamese media and journalists, the support, and the follow up of the French operators (TV5, RFI) based in the Vietnam.

GGG: Vietnam is a country for priority programmes with France. How is the cooperation expressed in the field of film?

NB: The programmes are many. And, the number will grow increasing since the Vietnamese Government has passed its law on the privatisation of production companies (Dec. 2002). The first private production companies are introducing the changes to all of the industry. And the French cooperation - which is ten years old now - is for the all the sectors of this industry.

Right now we are supporting an initiative for the distribution of French commercial films. It is for the first time in Vietnam that a French distribution company opened in the South of the country.

We are supporting the new development of Film school in the country. At the moment we are working in cooperation with the new director of the Hanoi film school. We wish to develop with that school a similar cooperation and training programme to the one already running with the HCM film school and the University of Paris 8.

GGG: Are the other film sectors concerned by the training cooperation programmes?

NB: Yes, training programmes are for all of the industry. We are supporting training programmes for the development of the Vietnamese media, for Vietnamese filmmakers, for Vietnamese studios, and as said earlier for Vietnamese students. The training programmes are held both in Vietnam and in France. Among the most recent, here in Vietnam we had a series of workshops on dialog led by famous Director/Screenwriter Michel Deville (Almost Peaceful -Un Monde Presque Paisible 2002, La maladie de Sachs - Sach's Disease (1999). On documentary film "Les Ateliers Varan” have just ended a series of workshop for a period of three month. This training involved several partnerships. Beside of the different teachers who took part in it, the cooperation programme also included the buying of filming and editing equipment that the participant will continue to use after the end of the workshop.

The workshops resulted in 10 documentary film. Three of them have been shown to the public in May 2004. Their quality correspond to professional standard. They may find a distribution market in the festival and maybe also on TV. The films reflect some of the country realities that we are not use to seeing outside and in Vietnam. Because the style, the way the documentaries have been done and, the stories they are telling are not reflecting the Official cinema. Nor, there are reflecting the style of foreign documentary filmmakers who are shooting in Vietnam. But the films show realities that may catch the interest of the Vietnamese audience as well as the audience abroad. The challenge is to keep the group in action. To help them continue learning and filming. They have worked together for a period of 3 months. They may soon be able to teach other what they have learned. Therefore, we are planning together with our Vietnamese partner; The Studio of Documentary Film of Vietnam the launch of a second workshop programme.

GGG: What are the other form of cooperation with the local industry?

NB: As said earlier, the film sector is open to the private sector since a year. The Vietnamese government has expressed its interest for the development of private film production. We know that the major studios will soon be private. These changes in the film landscape are calling for necessary reforms such as the Vietnamese funding support to the film production, the support to the independent film production etc. We have scheduled a seminary programme to take place July the 10 th at L'ESPACE. This seminary is organized with the CNC (Centre National de la Cinematorgraphie), the Vietnamese Authorities (Ministry of Culture and Film department) and, several film studio's responsible. The seminary aims at studying how the French model of film support can be applied to the local reality. The funding and the redistribution of the benefit is going to be studied during this one day seminar. The successful example of film funding in South Korea which was inspired by the French model may also be on the menu.

Interview by

Gyora GAL GLUPCZYNSKI

L’ESPACE

Address: 24 Trang Tien, Hanoi

Tel: 84-4-9 36 21 64

Fax: 84-4-9 36 21 65

Email to the Audiovisual attaché: Nicolas.Boissez@espace-ccfhanoi.org

The French Film Policy on the Official Website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (informations available in French, German, Spanish and English)

ATELIERS VARAN

Address: 6, impasse Mont-Louis, 75011 Paris, France

Tel: 33-1-43 56 6404

Fax: 33-1-43 56 2902

Email: contact@ateliersvaran.com

Website: www.ateliersvaran.com

Ateliers Varan has been conducting documentary workshops in countries around the world to help people explore the meaning of cultural identity means through the use of images and sound.