"Once upon a bridge in Vietnam” film wins at Los Angeles Film Awards

February 07, 2022 | 08:38

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"Once upon a bridge in Vietnam" – a documentary film by French filmmaker François Bibonne – won the award for Best Short Documentary Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards in the US.

The award is the result of the work of François Bibonne, the young French director whose grandmother is Vietnamese. The movie portrays the traditional music of Vietnam as well as is considered a cultural bridge between Vietnam and France.

According to François Bibonne, the film’s content is his journey to explore the classical music scene in Vietnam after his grandmother passed away. He wanted to study the place where his grandmother was born and grew up.

After brainstorming the idea in 2019, he spent 15 months going across the country to meet artists to listen to their stories about the origin of the classical music scene. During the journey, he had a lot of interesting experiences, such as the meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City Ballet and the Symphony Orchestra, violist Pham Vu Thien Bao, violinist Le Minh Hien, and conductor Tran Vuong Thach, as well as a trip to Then village to enjoy traditional trong com performances. Besides this, he visited Bac Ninh to study Quan ho culture and visited Hanoi to study Ca Tru music, among others.

Furthermore, in Hanoi, he had the opportunity to meet the musicians of Schubert in the Mug, the Hanoi Brass community (Xu Pham, Yuki Urushihara), and the Hanoi Saigon baroque orchestra (To Nhu Luong), who also introduced their project on developing national chamber music in Vietnam and strengthening the classical music community.

The Los Angeles Film Awards are a monthly competition for filmmakers and screenwriters from all over the world and the first festival to receive 400+ five-star reviews on FilmFreeway, out of over 8,000 film festivals.

By Nhat Ha

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