Hoa
15-minute film, 2023
Solo Exhibition at Gallery 310
Two-Channel Projection & Photography
Before developing her memory disorders, my bà nội (paternal grandmother), Trần Thị Tuyết Hoa wrote an autobiographical book about her life & its events.
The book is titled “Hồi Ức Tuyết Hoa” (Memories of Tuyết Hoa), & subtitled “Khi Đất Nước Tôi Thanh Bình: Hồi ức của một nữ sinh viên Sài Gòn” (When My Country is Peaceful: Memoirs of a Saigon Female Student).
She now reads this book everyday in her Hanoi home.
The footage & photographs were taken when I stayed with my ông bà nội for a month in their home in Hanoi during the summer of 2022, the first time I’ve been back to my home country in three years.
In the form of a visual & written poetic letter, “Hoa” is dedicated to my bà nội, from me, a Vietnamese grandchild.
For decades, the United States dropped three times more bombs in Vietnam than every country ever did in Europe in World War II. The Vietnam War was a crime against humanity caused by the American imperialist war machine, & it affects my people to this day. This war has changed the history of Vietnam, my country, my home, forever.
But the Vietnam I know today is totally different from the Vietnam my elders know. As 70% of the population of Vietnam is under 35 years old, the Vietnamese youth are constantly creating new subcultures & communities. Although it’s crucial to not forget the bodies that brought us here, & the bodies that never got to grow old. My bà nội did.
My bà nội, Tuyết Hoa, is a woman with many lives, even if she cannot remember them, I hope this project helps me & others remember her, or at least, her name.
Select Festivals & Screenings
- TIFF Next Wave: Young Creators Showcase, 2023
- TIFF Next Wave: Open Screen, 2022
- Dartmouth College: Identity and Becoming, 2024
- Vidéographe x VTape, Galerie Dazibao, 2024
- International Queer Women of Color Film Festival, 2024
- Ném Space, 2024
- KhôngTrung Drink & Screen, 2024
- Still Thinking Space, 2024
- Toronto Queer Film Festival: Systems of Kindred, 2023
- Pleasure Dome: New Toronto Works, 2023
- Toronto Youth Shorts Festival: Directing Non-Fiction Achievement, 2023
Media & Press