Abstract
This chapter focuses on the cinematic practices of Vietnamese moving image artist Nguyen Trinh Thi. Her methodology of mixture and hybridity underlines her various engagements with the archival materials, which become the focus of this study. The chapter argues that her media practices seek to disturb and defy the easy differentiation between documentary and fiction, and between the subjective and the objective. The author examines how Nguyen Trinh Thi’s essay films challenge the traditional understanding of archives and how her works contribute to the development of archiveology.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
‘Third Cinema’ was originally coined in a wide-read article by Argentinean political activist filmmakers Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. Despite its relevance in Latin America, more generally, ‘Third Cinema’ refers to a cinema that emerged in response to the ‘new historical condition’ of the 1950s and 1970s when waves of national independence movements and struggles for decolonization and deimperialization were taking place across the underdeveloped and developing countries in Latin America, Asia, and Africa—that is, the Third World. Solanas and Getino used Third to ‘distinguish the type of filmmaking that they argued was urgently needed from both Hollywood (First Cinema) and art films, stamped by a particular movie director’s personal vision (Second Cinema)’ (Downing 2010, 523). ‘Third Cinema’ has been used to frame the practice as well as aesthetics of a political filmmaking that actively engages the viewers in the anti-hegemonic, post-colonial, and anti-capitalism struggles.
Works Cited
Downing, John. 2010. “Third Cinema.” Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. 522–523.
Gleeson, Erin. 2015. “Nguyen Trinh Thi—Letters from Panduranga.” Jeu de Paume.
Nguyen Trinh Thi. 2012. “Song to the Front (2011).” Nguyen Trinh Thi’s Blog.
Nguyen Trinh Thi. 2015. “Vietnam the Movie (2015).” Nguyen Trinh Thi’s Blog.
Quí Hà, Nguyễn Hoàng. 2018. “Song to the Front and Eleven Men: Handcrafting History, Refining Memories and Contesting Women’s Sexuality.” Visual Anthropology 31 (4–5): 454–57. https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2018.1521195.
Rascaroli, Laura. 2017. How the Essay Film Thinks. New York: Oxford University Press.
Russell, Catherine. 2018. Archiveology: Walter Benjamin and Archival Film Practices. Durham: Duke University Press.
Scott, Izabella. 2019. “Nguyen Trinh Thi—Interview.” Studio International. February 19.
Tran Anh Hung, Director. 1995. Cyclo. New Yorker Video, 1996. 123 min. DVD.
Tran Anh Hung, Director. 2000. The Vertical Ray of the Sun. Les Productions Lazennec, Studio Canal and Arte France Cinema, 2012. 112 min. DVD.
Valentine, Ben. 2019. “A New Kind of Cinema Meditates on What It Means to Belong.” HYPERALLERGIC. January 10.
Acknowledgements
I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Pan Lu, and especially to Nguyen Trinh Thi, who has been very supportive and helpful throughout the process of this writing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ran, M. (2024). Toward Archiveology: Regarding Nguyen Trinh Thi’s Essay Films. In: Pan, L. (eds) The (Im)possibility of Art Archives. Contemporary East Asian Visual Cultures, Societies and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5898-6_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5898-6_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-99-5897-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-99-5898-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)