Celebrated Vietnamese artists and poets have been portrayed in a series of
documentaries by director Le Van Duy.

Life of devotion: A portrait of late composer Trinh Cong Son, who has been depicted in an episode of the series The Flowers I Know by director Le Van Duy. — File Photo

Entitled Nhung Bong
Hoa Toi Quen (The Flowers I Know), the series of 20-minute episodes will depict
the lives of poets Le Thi Kim, Tran Huu Dung, Bui Chi Vinh and Vu Trong Quang,
and composer Trinh Cong Son.

Duy said a civilised
society should respect its artists, which was why he and his colleagues had
invested their own money to produce the series.

“I have devoted a lot
of time in my life to making documentaries about artists and poets, who can be
compared to different species of flower. Through the series, we can learn more
about the cultural context of their time,” he said.

The former director of
HCM City’s Nguyen Dinh Chieu Studio has spent decades collecting material for
the series.

However, he said the most difficult task when making the programme
was accurately portraying the personality of each artist.

“It can be said that I
spent almost my entire life trying to understand their individual characters
just for a 20-minute documentary.”

In the episode about
Son, audiences will get the chance to see the images of the famous composer
shortly after the country’s reunification in April 1975 right up to just one
month before his death in April 2001.

The 69-year-old
director said he had so far filmed six episodes of the series.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News