{"id":7108,"date":"2018-10-22T10:32:39","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T17:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centrea.org\/?p=7108"},"modified":"2024-03-08T13:39:49","modified_gmt":"2024-03-08T20:39:49","slug":"four-films-by-tuan-andrew-nguyen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centrea.org\/2018\/10\/four-films-by-tuan-andrew-nguyen\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Films by Tuan Andrew Nguyen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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October 24<\/b><\/p>\n

Evening screening 7:00\u00a0\u2014 8:30 pm<\/b><\/p>\n

Centre A is excited to present a program of four films by Ho Chi Minh City-based artist and filmmaker\u00a0Tuan Andrew Nguyen<\/a>, including the Canadian premieres of\u00a0The Living Need Light, the Dead Need Music<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(co-authored as a member of The Propeller Group) and\u00a0My Ailing Beliefs Can Cure Your Wretched Desires<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

As both a solo artist and a member of\u00a0The Propeller Group<\/a>, with Phunam and Matt Lucero, Nguyen\u2019s work over the last two decades has explored migration, diaspora, and intersectional coalition-building between post-colonial peoples. For example, Nguyen\u2019s 2008 solo work\u00a0Letters From Saigon to Saigon\u00a0<\/em>takes the form of a long letter penned by Wowy, a young rapper based in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Sai Gon), to the American rapper Saigon. Nguyen describes the work as \u201cpart fan-letter, part foreign diplomacy, touching upon the overlapping moments of pop culture, politics, and history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another key concern of Nguyen\u2019s work is Vietnam\u2019s rapid economic growth and rise to \u201cnew Asian Tiger\u201d status, meditating on colonial histories and indigenous belief systems hidden within twenty-first century Vietnamese modernization. The Propeller Group\u2019s\u00a0The Living Need Light, the Dead Need Music<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(2014), originally commissioned for New Orleans\u2019s Prospect Biennial, suggests affinities between elaborate, multi-day Vietnamese funerary practices, which had been partially outlawed by previous Communist regimes and resuscitated after the state\u2019s 1986 economic reforms, and the similarly carnivalesque character of New Orleans\u2019s so-called \u201cjazz funerals.\u201d Nguyen\u2019s two-channel solo film\u00a0My Ailing Beliefs Can Cure Your Wretched Desires<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(2017) reflects on the irony that contemporary Vietnam\u2019s reverence for animals has caused their overconsumption, which in turn has resulted in the extinction and near-extinction of numerous species. Posed as a Socratic dialogue between the spirits of the last Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros and Hoan Kiem turtle, the film brings together conspicuous consumption of rare animal meat, the recently-wrought belief that rhino horn can cure cancer (which appeals to the wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine but is nowhere to be found in its annals), and the symbolic importance of the film\u2019s protagonist animals as totems for Vietnamese independence.<\/p>\n

Also included are the short video work\u00a0The Two Tuans<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0(1998), created when Nguyen was an undergraduate student at the University of California, Irvine; and the music video for Wowy\u2019s song \u201cKe Toi Do\u201d (2017), which Nguyen directed and collaborated on.<\/p>\n

Nguyen is a partner in\u00a0TPG Films<\/a>, a production firm that has served as The Propeller Group\u2019s commercial shadow. In addition to working with artists such as Dinh Q. Le and the collective Superflex, and on various ad campaigns, TPG Films has also been a force in Vietnamese pop music, producing numerous videos for the country\u2019s younger generation of musicians. TPG Films\u2019s music video aesthetic has bled into Nguyen\u2019s and The Propeller Group\u2019s artistic work, and is especially visible in\u00a0The Living Need Light, the Dead Need Music<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Program:<\/strong><\/div>\n
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