A picture of the Mekong Diaries film crew taken by director-photographer Pham Khac in Qing Hai Province, China

A new photo book illustrates the diverse landscapes and colorful cultures of the Mekong River as captured by an award-winning documentary filmmaker while working on his magnum-opus.

The pictures were selected from 20,000 photos Khac took from 2001- 2004 while he shot the award-winning documentary series Mekong ky su (The Mekong Diaries).

Compiled by Khac’s family and colleagues, the book features commentary – in both Vietnamese and English – written by the films’ screenwriter Tran Duc Tuan.

The book features chapters on each of the countries through which the world’s tenth-longest river flows: China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Cultural and literary critic Dr. Tran Trong Dang Dan said the book captures the quintessence of the documentary Khac made.

“In his pictures, Pham Khac has the movement of a gesture, not the arm, a thinking being, not a person and an idea rather than a natural landscape,” Dan said.

Khac, whose real name is Pham Tan Phuoc, was born in 1939 in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre

Province. He served as a war correspondent for the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and has directed more than 100 documentaries both during and after the war.

Khac was the director of Ho Chi Minh City Television from 1996- 2003, a period during which he accepted several government honors, including the titles of People’s Artist in 1997 and Labor Hero in 2000.

He died in 2007 after a stroke.

The 90-episode Mekong Diaries focused on the river’s influences on the regions through which it flowed.

Khac and his crew traveled from the river’s source in the Himalayas through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The film documents not only the river’s beauty, but also its natural history and the story’s of the cultures it supports.

The series won the top documentary prize at the Canh dieu vang (Golden Kite) Awards – Vietnam’s most prestigious film awards – in 2006.

“Pham Khac, The Mekong Diaries – Film and Photos” is available at bookstores throughout HCMC and Hanoi for VND600,000 (US$33.74).

Reported by Trong Kha