Saigon Creative December event Friday 16 – Nick Ross

Nick Ross in Istanbul.

This Friday we welcome our next speaker Nick Ross. A resident of Vietnam for almost 12 years, Nick is the chief editor of the English language magazine, The Word.

Born in the UK, besides his present job Nick has also worked as a music journalist, a reporter for BBC Radio Bristol and a production manager for a contract publisher in the UK. He spent his first six years in this country working in education - teaching and managing teachers both in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. His present role with The Word started in 2005 with the launch of the English language magazine Saigon Inside Out. Over the following three years, this magazine transformed into the one it is now.

Nick will talk about the growing creativity in the publishing industry in Vietnam and how it no longer always pays to "play it safe". Contrary to western belief, the media industry in Vietnam is far more open and buoyant than perceived overseas. Reporters without Borders places Vietnam as number 165 in the media freedom charts, just slightly above Cuba and North Korea. According to Nick, the particular conditions of operating in Vietnam and the commercial needs of publications means that this is a mistaken assessment.

Biography

Nick Ross started out professional life as a music journalist before a stint on a programme on BBC Radio Bristol saw him move into the publishing industry. Working for a contract publisher on a number of specialist titles in a range of industries, Nick left the comparative safety of little England in the late 1990s to seek 'new experience'. Little did he know that a proposed six-month trip to Southeast Asia would turn into a decade-long stint in Vietnam.

Nick's present journey on the publication The Word started in early 2005 after the relaunch of an education magazine in Singapore. Returning to the comparative safety of Ho Chi Minh City, together with a friend and fellow journalist he decided to launch a magazine called Saigon Inside Out. After a number of false starts and then issues with licensing, it finally hit the streets in November 2005. Saigon Inside Out was the first wholly privately owned English language publication in Vietnam.

10 issues later and Saigon Inside Out came to an abrupt halt. After a short hiatus it returned with a new name, Asialife. This publication ran for a year before Nick decided to move on set up The Word Ho Chi Minh City with his wife, Duong Vy Bao.

The Word launched in January 2008 and has been going strong ever since. In November 2009 the team behind The Word launched a separate edition in Hanoi.

An avid reader - on bad weeks he can go through four or five novels in less than seven days - Nick's role as chief editor has seen him develop his skills as a writer and a photographer. Both outspoken and yet diplomatic, to the point and yet wide of the mark, Nick will be bringing his experience of working in the media in Vietnam to Saigon Creative.

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Why don't don't tourists come back to Vietnam?

Zoe Butt, the curator of San Art was generous enough to join us as our speaker last week.  Over the next hour, she drew the link between contemporary art, expression, isolation, and even the low rate of visitors to Vietnam.

 What I found most interesting was her observation that it wasn't govt. regulation that was stifling artists (at least directly), but self-censorship as artists simply avoided risky topics or making statements that would challenge social mores.  Over time, she noted that this has created a culture of conventional thinking.

Highlighting the educational system as an integral part of the machine, she discussed the lack of conceptual and analytical thinking as well as the notion that Vietnamese artists were becoming isolated from what else exists in the world.  This was interesting, that at a time when we are more connected than ever, there was less interest in actively engaging with the art community at large.  What about for the sake of inspiration?  Technique?  Or just interest and gaining new perspective?

She highlighted that contemporary art wasn't political, but that it was about exploring new expression.  And that a key area where the art conversation here in Vietnam needs to focus is the intent of the artist rather than just style or focusing on elements of the art.

All in all, a thrilling hour and it inspired me to think about what I can do to support expression here in Vietnam.  See you at the next one!

-George

Zoe Butt joins us on the 23rd

On November 23, we welcome Zoe Butt as our next speaker.  She lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where she is the curator and director of programs and development for Sàn Art, an independent artist-run gallery space and reading room. From 2001 to 2007 she was assistant curator for contemporary Asian art at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, where she assisted in the development of the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) and in key acquisitions for the museum’s contemporary Asian art collection and other associated gallery programs; and from 2007 to 2009 she was director of international programs for the Long March Project, a complex, multi-platform, international artist organization and ongoing art project based in Beijing, China. For more than ten years she has been researching contemporary Asian art and has curated and co-curated exhibitions and contributed to various international art publications that have reflected the dynamic art of this region.


She'll talk about her experiences in helping build a creative culture here in Saigon.  To hear a little bit about her perspective as a curator, go to:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOI_NSPILek

Jenni Trang Le, a leader in the new Viet Film Wave

Every month, the good folks at Saigon Creative host monthly talks with creatives doing work in Vietnam. I play basketball with George Nguyen, so in between games where I pass him the rock to drain the game-winners (or is that the other way around), we’ll manage to talk shop about people we know in the city.

Saigon Creative’s muse for this month is Jenni Trang Le, who I’ve been fortunate to live with upon her arrival here in 2008.

Her resume thus far: Journey from the Fall, Powder Blue, Owl and the Sparrow, Bi, Don’t Be Afraid (Bi, dung so)! The Rebel, Clash (Bay Rong), Inferno (Giao Lo Dinh Menh), Battle of the Brides (Co Dau Dai Chien), Long Ruoi. Yes, Jenni Trang Le is a Hindu God of sorts, her hands have touched all of these films.


Cotdamn.

Here is all the cool shtuff I managed to learn from Jenni about filmmaking and the film industry in Vietnam, bullet-pointed for your reading pleasure:

On challenges

• What Saigon and the general Vietnam filmmaking community lacks right now is good writers - she doesn’t know why this is the case for the time being (Chim: I think rote educational practices is to blame)
• Right now, directors are writing their own films, because they have to (google the aforementioned list of films Jenni has worked on)
• Pretty much everything she has learned about filmmaking had to be thrown out the window once she started in Vietnam
• Here, you have to be on your feet and go with the flow - there is always a lot of problem-solving

On money

• Scripts usually sell to production houses for $5,000 on average
• Saigon is perceived as just making commercial films, Hanoi is perceived as just making art-house films
• When it comes to filmmaking: Vietnamese folks are very resourceful. One time, her crew had ordered a crane, that never came, so her crew concocted one using a bunch of clamps and pipes
• A funding source more filmmakers are beginning to explore is product placement. Of course, filmmakers are usually against this, but according to her: “no money, no film.”
• Product placement is billed by the amount of time it is placed in the film, not by the prominence of the placement
  

On schedule

• The Rebel, shot in 80 days, was being written as it was being filmed, because they wanted to shoot it during the winter - being an action film and all - and it was so delayed, they just had to get started
• Directors vs. Producers: "I want more time to do something" vs. "No, you have to stop it"
• Commercial films released around Tet usually don’t bother with subtitles. Art-house films need subtitles since they normally reach international audiences.
  

 On future

• When people approach Jenni, they don’t approach her about film ideas, they approach her about acting opportunities (“Can I be an actor/actress?”)
• What is essential for Vietnamese filmmaking to move forward is for filmmakers to stay true to their vision. The ones that stay true and make what they want to make will succeed.
  

 She also made this a while back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZiE9WNzd0E

Paraphrased: “I liked the idea of animals speaking many different languages, but ultimately understanding each other. In terms of language, I just used whatever friends I had available, at my disposal, at the time.”

Jenni hasn’t directed her own film just yet, it is in her pipeline though.

The next film she is working on is a romantic comedy, coming out in April.

Lastly, not only does she makes films, she makes cupcakes in this biatch! Jenni Cakes, whatchu know about it?!

She makes films. She makes cupcakes. BOOSH!

- Jimmy Tran

Oct. 21 - Jenni Trang Le

Our next speaker is Jenni Trang Le.  Some could say Jenni Trang Le has been a part of the Viet Film Wave from the beginning.  She worked on Ham Tran’s JOURNEY FROM THE FALL (2006), Tim Bui’s POWDER BLUE (2009) and was 1^st Assistant Director for several Vietnamese American films that followed, including Charlie Nguyen’s THE REBEL (2007), Stephane Gauger’s OWL AND THE SPARROW (2008). 

In 2007 Le wrote, directed and animated a short claymation project, “Oh Mommy!/Me Oi”, funded by the James Irvine Foundation as a part of Visual Communications’ annual fellowship, Armed with a Camera.

These days, Le has begun to take on more producing opportunities, starting with Associate Producer of a child sex trafficking film in Cambodia, HOLLY (2007) directed by Guy Moshe, as well as co-producer on “Viet Nam Overtures”, a documentary on symphony musicians in Northern and Southern Viet Nam.  Early 2009 Le officially relocated to Saigon after a 5 year film flirtation and now freelances.  Since moving to the city of organized chaos, she has co-produced CLASH/Bay Rong (2009) and the historical epic Khat Vong Thang Long (2010).  She still 1^st AD’s as her bread and butter, having completed Phan Dang Di’s BI, DON’T BE AFRAID/Bi, dung so!, Victor Vu’s INFERNO/Giao Lo Dinh Menh (2009), BATTLE OF THE BRIDES/Co Dau Dai Chien (2010), and most recently Vietnamese box office record breaker Long Ruoi (2011).

Jenni Trang Le graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelors of Art in Anthropology. She has spent the last eight years focused on theatre, community work, and film. She was the Associate Festival Director for the biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2005 & 2007. She was on the board of the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association when she still lived in the US.  She is now exploring her new life in the motherland, through the eyes of a bicultural artivist.

She'll join us on the 21st to talk about some of the challenges and joys she's faced working here in Vietnam and trying to ensure the same quality products in a market that doesn't always have the same resources or standards that she was coming from.

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Coffee+Art=Saigon Creative's speaker of the day

Small talk before the presentation

A big thank you to all of you that could make it this morning. Coffee and art, that's an irresistible combination in my book. Cristina took us on a visual and intriguing journey, all in good taste and well explained references as we went from matchstick heads to portraits created in blood to taxidermy artworks. Disclaimer, the artists keeps at least three large fridges storing road kill that has been collected, often with the help of friends and family.

How can this not be an interesting morning. Enjoy the images and scroll down for the complete reading list kindly provided by Cristina Nualart.

The morning group waiting for Art+Coffee

What do you do with matchsticks?

You start building

Until you have mastered the skill and create a portrait made of matchstick heads

Why stop with matchsticks when we can utilise clothes hangers

Self portrait made with own blood, approx 5 liters

Taxidermy art

Our speaker: Cristina

ARTISTS:

Salvador Dali (not contemporary)
David Mach
Banksy
Gavin Turk
Xu Bing
Joan Fontcuberta
Mark Wallinger
http://www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/
Christian Boltanksi
Caspar David Friedrich (not contemporary)
Mariele Neudecker
Yolanda Domínguez http://www.yolandadominguez.com/ & video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPEcdcmnAA0&feature=player_embedded#!
Mark Quinn
Richard Wilson (20:50)
Rachel Whiteread
Roger Hiorns
Polly Morgan
Maria Gendelman

PERFORMANCE ART:
'Sutra' at Sadlers Wells, set design by artist Antony Gormley
'IN-I' with Akram Khan and Juliette Binoche with set design by artist Anish Kapoor
Total Theatre group 'La Fura dels Baus' (opera 'Le Grand Macabre')

RECOMMENDED VIEWING:
Film: 'Exit through the giftshop' (Banksy)
Film: 'Beautiful Losers'
Documentary series 'ART21'

Reminder for upcoming Saigon Creative September event

A reminder for our upcoming Saigon Creative September event featuring Cristina Nualart. Please register for your free ticket below.

Hope to see you all on Friday!

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