Hollywood execs tutor filmmakers in Vietnam
HANOI - Vietnam's small but fast-growing film industry got a dose of Hollywood this week as a delegation of film professionals arrived to participate in the country's first American Film Week.
The writers, directors, producers and cinematographers are all members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that presents the Oscars.
They were invited by the Vietnam Cinema Department, part of Vietnam's one-party Communist government, which has been easing its control over the content of local films and allowing the development of privately produced movies.
"This is a very good opportunity for us to strengthen cooperation with the American film industry," said Do Duy Anh, head of the department's international-relations division. "We will explore whether we can cooperate in filmmaking and distribution."
The Americans, who arrived Wednesday, will try to nurture aspiring filmmakers by sharing their expertise at a series of seminars and film screenings in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's southern business hub and the center of its entertainment industry.
Among them, the visitors have 14 Oscar nominations and two Oscars. They include Susannah Grant, writer and director of Erin Brockovich; Curtis Hanson, writer, director and producer of L.A. Confidential; William Horberg, producer of The Quiet American; Tom Pollock, executive producer of Field of Dreams; Phil Robinson, writer and director of Field of Dreams; Freida Lee Mock, who made the documentary Wrestling With Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner, and Emmanuel Lubezki, cinematographer of Children of Men.
Pirated copies of Hollywood films are widely available in Vietnam for just more than a dollar apiece, and U.S. films are frequently shown on the country's state-run television networks.
Vietnam's film industry is changing quickly, from an old state-run studio system into a more modern industry that began allowing private companies to make movies in 2003.
The Ministry of Culture and Information still reviews all scripts before production can begin. But the subject matter is moving more frequently beyond the familiar tales of heroic Vietnamese soldiers and other nationalistic themes into racier, more commercial fare.
By Ben Stocking - The Associated Press - May 4, 2007.
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