20 Years of Varan – Documentary Filmmaking in Vietnam
The year 2025 marks two decades of the establishment and development of the Varan documentary film workshop in Vietnam...
FIND OUTVaran Vietnam is a group of independent documentary filmmakers who focus on
Direct Cinema style.
Activities
From Limits to Freedom – The Creative Journey of People with Disabilities
The discussion will open dialogues on the participation of people with disabilities in the arts and reconsider the relationship between art and disability in a more balanced perspective...
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The 8th Wallonie-Bruxelles Love Film Festival in Vietnam
This is a rare opportunity for Vietnamese audiences to enjoy exceptional and humanistic films. These films have been honored at the Cannes Film Festival, the Oscars, the Magritte Awards...
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Screening of 2 short documentary films by Varan Vietnam in Hanoi
The two films were completed within the Hanoi 2024-2025 workshop, sponsored by CFImedias and the European and French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (France Diplomatie) as part of the project “Des médias Une santé”
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The 15th European-Vietnamese Documentary Film Festival
From the very first creative workshops of Varan Vietnam, National Documentary and Scientific Film Studio has always been the place providing dedicated assistance and support to Varan students.
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The screening: “Children of the Mist”
The screening and discussion event is non-profit, free of charge, and for educational purposes.
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Varan Vietnam Films
Finding Phong
Director: Tran Phuong Thao & Swann Dubus
Year: 2014
Time: 90 minutes
Finding Phong
Phong grew up in a small town in Central Vietnam as the youngest of six siblings. From an early age, Phong felt like a girl trapped in a boy’s body. It was only after moving to Hanoi to attend university at age 20 that Phong realized she was not alone in this experience.
Finding Phong
Phong grew up in a small town in Central Vietnam as the youngest of six siblings. From an early age, Phong felt like a girl trapped in a boy’s body. It was only after moving to Hanoi to attend university at age 20 that Phong realized she was not alone in this experience.
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Children of the Mist
Children of the Mist follows Di, a 12-year-old H’Mông girl, on her journey of growing up amid the clash between traditional and modern cultures. The film portrays the innocent childhood of the girl, her childhood games related to the custom of “bride kidnapping,” and then her harsh confrontation when she becomes a victim of this tradition, leading to a broken childhood and the challenges of maturation.
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Somewhere by the hospital
The day-to-day battles of patients who reinvent their lives in a small alley near their hospital in Hanoi, far from their villages and families.
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Winter is coming
Inside a care center in Ba Vi, Hanoi, patients dream of a normal life, yearning for the warmth of affection, sending messages beyond the iron bars, hoping to be heard.
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Grave diggers for hire
“Grave diggers for hire” is a quiet documentary following Bình and Ngọc, two men who make a living by exhuming graves at a rural cemetery near Hanoi. Behind this daily work are profound reflections on health, death, and the meaning of preserving a tradition that is gradually fading away.
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Mr.Toan
The film serves as a bridge bringing the filmmaker closer to the lively, full-of-surprises life of a 35-year-old “comrade police officer,” a world filled with dreams and desires for love. Yet behind that, there are vague traces of reality intertwined with distant fantasies.
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Thiên Ân
Mr. Phương lives isolated from the outside world by cardboard boxes. There, he eats, sleeps, reads books, writes poetry, keeps a diary, designs circuit boards, and repairs electronic devices.
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The Unseen Studio
In a school where visually impaired students learn with sighted peers, twin brothers Phát and Nhân pursue their musical dreams in a secret studio they built in their dormitory.
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