nine

"nine" is a 9-prompt-video-poem that was originally made for Teater Garasi (Indonesia) as a part of UrFear: The Multitude of Peer Gynt 2021 Project . "nine" responses to Peer Gynt's repeated question "Who are you?" via structuring the conversations between Yen and her parents about their last memories of the family members who have died, especially Yen's grandpa and grandma. This work includes 09 tiny videos and was composed to be installed as 09 seperated pieces stranded in different spots in the space which make the characters in each video feel like a wandering spirit merged into the wall, the table, the bed, the ceiling,...

Credits:
Concept & conceived by: Red
DOP & Camera operator: Red
Performed by: KIM Lâm Duy Phương, Thương Lê
Voices: Nguyen Chien Thang, Vu Thi Chung, Nguyen Hai Yen
Sound Recorder: Nguyen Hai Yen, Nguyen Chien Thang, Vu Thi Chung
Sound Mix & Master: Pham The Vu
Video Editor: Red
Translation & Subtitle: Red

Sincere thanks to:
All the spirits, here and there
Grandma, grandpa
Mom & Dad
Teater Garasi team
Đa: Still Satire team
Arsita Iswardhani
Nguyễn Công Nguyên
Huỳnh Đắc Phúc Beeli Kerli

Text sources:
Conversations between Red and her parents
Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt, English translation by John Northam
Dante Alighieri, Divina Commedia, Vietnamese translation by Nguyen Van Hoan
Ingmar Bergman, The seventh seal

Songs (sung improvisational by Red’s mom)
Người ơi người ở đừng về (Oh my beloved one, please stay don’t leave), a Quan họ (love duets) song
Con cò (The stork), Vietnamese lullaby
You’re my heart, you’re my soul, Modern Talking - played from a DVD player

  • Hai Yen Nguyen
    Director
    Red Nguyen Hai Yen
  • Yen Hai Nguyen
    Producer
    Red Nguyen Hai Yen
  • Phuong Duy Lam
    Key Cast
    "the wandering spirit 1"
    Kim Lâm Duy Phương
  • Thuong Le
    Key Cast
    "the wandering spirit 2"
    Thương Lê
  • Yen Hai Nguyen
    Concept and conceived by
    Red Nguyen Hai Yen
  • Yen Hai Nguyen
    D.O.P and Camera Operator
    Red Nguyen Hai Yen
  • Thang Chien Nguyen
    Voices
    Nguyễn Chiến Thắng
  • Chung Thi Vu
    Voices
    Vũ Thị Chung
  • Yen Hai Nguyen
    Voices
    Nguyễn Hải Yến
  • Vu The Pham
    Sound Mix & Master
    Phạm Thế Vũ
  • Project Type:
    Experimental
  • Completion Date:
    August 18, 2021
  • Production Budget:
    1,500 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Vietnam
  • Country of Filming:
    Vietnam
  • Language:
    English, German, Vietnamese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
  • UrFear: Transit Sri Lanka and Vietnam
    online
    Indonesia
    August 24, 2021
  • Till later letter Exhibition, curated by Van Do
    Á Space, Hanoi
    Viet Nam
    January 16, 2022
Director Biography - Hai Yen Nguyen

Nguyen Hai Yen (Red) is a Lang Son (Vietnam) based video artist and independent art producer whose practice focuses on the multidisciplinary approaches which addresses the shifting boundaries between different forms of art, fiction and documentary, life and death, human and animal, living beings and spirits...Her practice focuses on reflecting one's landscape by questioning what are the ‘gestures’ of memory and belief?

Her video works were featured at Seashort Film Festival, Fundacion-PROA, White Chapell Gallery (nominated by Hanoi DocLab for the Artist Films International 2019), Arkipel International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival, Fifth Wall Fest, Mikino Film Festival, Sàn Art, Teater Garasi’s program...Since 2018, she had been involved in organizing multi poetry/experimental music/performance activities with independent publishing house Ajar Press and Heritage Space. Her works as dance producer include various projects with H2Q Dance Company, Kinergie Studio, Mat Tran Ensembles and choreographer Ngo Thanh Phuong. She also produces exhibitions that involve performances. In 2020, she co-directed MORUA - an artist-in-residency program based in Hoi An aiming to create a focused space and time for next-generation performing/performance/interdisciplinary art practitioners to develop their works by researching/exchanging their methods of body-and-movements. She was selected to join Asia Connection: Producers Camp 2021 & 2022, organized by Taiwan’s National Theater & Concert Hall. Recently, she was invited to join the Partnership Development Programme in the UK, funded by the British Council. In late October 2022, Red and her project “Trà đá party#1: Dạo nghe (Sound Walk)” was taking part in Mekong Cultural Hub’s MCH Meeting Point on Art & Social Action 2022. She’s working on her on-going video-performance project “The Tangerine Womb” in her hometown Lạng Sơn, which belong to the Terasia project (a theater project about death, life and belief, initiated by Japanese artists and joined by Indonesian, Malaysian, Thailand and Vietnam artists). Red is a Prince Claus Seed Award Recipient 2022.

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