Vi Tuong Bui

Still
Moving
Thời Thơ Ấu
Vi’s Garden
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Thời Thơ Ấu

2023, color, sound, 7 min, 16mm to digital

Thời Thơ Ấu (Childhood) explores my understanding of my bố mẹ as people outside of their roles as my parents through looking at how they dream for their late parents and homeland as former refugees of the US War in Vietnam / Vietnam War. What concessions will I need to make to begin to see my parents as expansive individuals? What will I gain from embracing them in their fullness?

I collected their dreams, stories, and memories using 16mm and Vietnamese and in my childhood home in Annandale, Virginia and Queens, New York. Vietnamese is the mother tongue of my parents, but English is the language I know myself by. We spoke in Vietnamese for the making of this film, and I slowly translated their words to English.

After creating still images on 35mm for the past decade, the camera became an extension of myself and an active part of understanding and encountering the world around me. My transition from photography to filmmaking as my main practice of art-making emerged during the pandemic out of a necessity to remind myself of who I am and to begin inserting my Vietnamese American identity into my work.

Cast & Crew

Starring Lan Bui and Tuan Bui
Directed, produced, edited, & translated by Vi Tuong Bui
Cinematography by Vi Tuong Bui, Sunyoung Kim, Khaile Forbes
Sound by Sunyoung Kim, River Ngu

For Bố Mẹ

Special Thanks
Third World Newsreel
Danny Kim
Chrystian Rodriguez
Mono No Aware
Steve Cossman

Scanned by Mono No Aware

Press Packet

This Third World Newsreel Workshop project was supported in part by
The National Endowment for the Arts,
The New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor and the NY State Legislature
Public funds from the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council
the Hollywood Foreign Press Association
the Kolibri Foundation
The Peace Development Fund
and Individual donors.

Poster design by Lucky Risograph