Four Vietnamese
documentaries will be aired on Discovery channel’s Travel & Living category
in the Asia-Pacific region as of May 5 2011.
Producer Ha Thuc Van, who has involved in the “” project from the beginning, talked with The Thao
& Van Hoa about it.

A scene from “1000-year-old City” by Nguyen Manh Ha

This project was kicked off in
2009. Why until now four documentaries are broadcast?

I don’t have the
right to set the time of broadcast. As a member of the project, I and film
crews want to finish it early. There are many reasons for the sluggishness. For
example, Phan Y Ly’s “Thanh Pho Dam Me” (City of Passion) was firstly filmed by under standard
cameras, so it was shot again. A director could not arrange his schedule to
join his film crew to finish their documentary in Singapore; that was also a reason.

According to the local media, this project
was in a lot of troubles. At the last minute, Phan Y Ly’s “City of Passion” was rejected.
What do you say about it?

As Mr. Vikram
Channa, Vice Chair in charge of production and development of Discovery
Networks Asia-Pacific, making movie means difficulties.

It is a pity that
Phan Y Ly’s documentary is not aired, but as a project manager who has worked
with many foreign TV channels like BBC, Discovery, etc. I understand that it is
important to respect the time schedule set by the foreign partners.

Joining the game
with foreign partners, we must accept the rules, the difference and fairness
because it is a fact that sometimes foreign partners don’t understand well
about Vietnamese culture. People who cannot work in team can’t cooperate with
foreigners.

Producer Ha Thuc Van (middle) and four directors

In your opinion, what are the shortcomings
of Vietnamese film-makers in comparison with international standards?

We have good ideas
and skilled cameramen. I like cameramen who joined this project very much.
Filming documentaries is different from filming feature films. Scenes in
documentaries are not arranged so cameramen work like directors who have to
deal with every rising issue on the spot. Cameramen must understand directors.
They have to be sensitive to catch up with changes, even accept dangers.
Cameramen in this project worked very seriously and they were as professional
as foreign colleagues.

PV