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US film producer bring Vietnamese movies to USA 5th July 2008
Gerald
Herman, a film producer and a student of famous film director Martin
Scorsese, has lived in Vietnam for the past 15 years. Instead of seeking
opportunities in Hollywood, he quietly brings Vietnamese movies to the
US to help Americans understand more about Vietnam. He said he would
live in beautiful Vietnam the rest of his life.
The road to Vietnam
In 1992 Gerald Herman, at that time working as manager of an advertising
firm in Indonesia, travelled to Vietnam. He was immediately charmed by
this country. The trip changed his life. “At that time, the US hadn't
lifted its embargo on Vietnam. I imagined seeing poor Vietnamese with
sad faces, who hated Americans. But Vietnamese people seemed to pay no
attention to the past. They ware busy building the country and
developing economics. They amazed me,” he said. “I felt that this was a
vital and developing country. I decided to leave my company in Indonesia
to work in Vietnam,” he added.
Herman’s Lotus Communication company in HCM City ran very well but it
had to close four years later because it couldn’t compete with
international advertising groups. Herman moved to Hanoi to seek new
business opportunities and he became chief representative of Discovery
Communication, a Singaporean firm, in Vietnam.
As a film producer who owns a big collection of movies, he planned to
set up a movie club in Vietnam. Herman spent five years looking for a
suitable place to open the Hanoi Cinematheque with the assistance of the
Vietnamese Ministry of Culture and Information.
This club has had difficulties operating because it doesn't sell
tickets. It makes its money from donations and membership fees. Hanoi
Cinematheque currently has over 2,000 members and it receives warm
support from many embassies in Vietnam like Brazil, Italy, UK, Japan,
Iran, etc.
Herman is now very busy running the club. Sometimes he has talks with
students at movie and stage schools in Vietnam. His small movie club
attracts many foreign visitors who come to watch Vietnamese films to
understand more about this country. For Vietnamese audiences, foreign
movies screened at Hanoi Cinematheque bring them closer to distant
places right in Vietnam.
Herman is satisfied about the increasing number of audiences coming to
his cinema but he regrets that Vietnamese members account for just
one-third of the total.
Annually he returns to the US twice to visit his family. His wife and
children sometimes come to Vietnam to visit him. He said: “I will die in
this land."
The itinerary of Vietnamese movies to the US
Herman realised that Vietnam had a movie industry since the 1960s and
1970s but Vietnamese films were never brought to the world, except for
being introduced at some international film festivals. Most Vietnamese
films that won international prizes were produced by overseas
Vietnamese.
He brought some Vietnamese feature films to the US for distribution as
DVDs, for example "Bao gio cho den thang muoi" (When the Tenth Month
Comes), "Thuong nho dong que" (Nostalgia for Homeland) by Dang Nhat
Minh, Viet Linh’s Street Circuit, etc.
Four years ago, he helped distribute “The Travel to Southern Forest", a
series based on a famous novel by Doan Gioi, in the US and some European
countries. The Travel to Southern Forest is a favourite film of Herman.
He said the movie is interesting not only for children but also adults.
He believes that the movie will change the outlook of Americans on
Vietnam.
“Vietnamese people are open-hearted, hospitable and Vietnam is a country
with a long history, which always looks to the future,” he said.
Herman is seeking funding to bring more Vietnamese films to the US, the
world’s movie kingdom. Though he is very busy with the his movie club,
Herman hopes to produce a film about modern Vietnam.
Source: VNS
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