Looking For You| Tìm Hiểu is a perceptive and bilingual retelling of intimate family stories through the lens of Vietnamese culture. This labour of love examines mother – daughter relationships and uncovers all emotions from shame and sacrifice to shared passions. The screenings will be hosted all over the globe, in the UK (London and Manchester), Vietnam and Australia. Anna Nguyen (Sonic Pho, Signal Fires, Summer Rolls) and Kristine Landon Smith (Viswamitri Villas, Decolonisation: not just a buzzword, Emerge) collaborate with Vietnamese researchers across each of the four locations, to lay the foundations for this fascinating and insightful film.
Co-Creator, Kristine Landon Smith comments, Headphone verbatim asks the actors to listen to the source interview as they perform: the actors listen and speak at the same time becoming the conduits of the people they are performing. Headphone insists that actors stay as close to the source as possible where the idiosyncratic detail of each interviewee is honoured and brought to life. Thirty four interviews are woven together underpinned by a haunting soundtrack to create an insightful and affecting look at the mother daughter relationship in Vietnamese culture.
The film invites audiences to engage with each interview through the unique technique of headphone verbatim. By gathering bespoke testimonies from each of the four actors, audiences can see actors’ individual responses in relation to mother and daughter relationships. The initial interviews reveal themes of reflection and this universal desire to understand the past.
It will be bilingual English/Vietnamese and created by Vietnamese artists from the UK, Australia, and Vietnam. Each screening location will include a live discussion with all cast and creatives to unravel and leave room for discussion around this special and personal film. This event will focus on the Vietnamese community and support South East Asian voices and artists that are still underrepresented.
