BY TAM NGUYEN / Nguoi Viet 2
‘Beyond the Mat’ will be shown Thursday night to kick off the Vietnamese International Film Festival.
Lights, camera, action! It’s show time for the sixth Vietnamese International Film Festival.
ViFF begins today and runs through the weekend, then resumes April 11 to 14 at various Southern California locations. It kicks off tonight with the screening of “Beyond the Mat” at 7:30 p.m. at Edwards University Town Center 6 in Irvine.
Other venues are UC Irvine, UCLA, and the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. In all, 69 films will be featured, including 18 short films directed and produced by Vietnamese filmmakers from all over the world. An estimated 4,000 people are expected to attend the showings.
For full program listing, schedule and locations, and ticket information, visit www.vietfilmfest.com.
Since 2003, two nonprofit organizations ― the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) and Vietnamese Language & Culture have presented the film fest every other year. The mission of the festival is to celebrate the work of Vietnamese filmmakers and help them, as well as the actors, to be recognized throughout the world.
“The VAALA organization is based on arts and literature of the Vietnamese culture, and we decided to share films that tell the stories of Vietnamese culture,” said Ysa Le, executive director of VAALA.
Van Pham, who directed “Beyond the Mat,” said he is honored his film was chosen to lead off the festival. This is his first feature-length film after working on short films in the past.
“It feels good to be in the festival, especially on the opening day,” Pham said. “I was thrilled when Ysa asked me to screen the film at the festival and accepted the proposal.”
