Celebrated director and film star Dao Ba Son speaks about his 35 years of success in the movie business and his more recent foray into documentary filmmaking.

Actor, director Dao Ba Son won prizes for both Best Film and Best Director for the documentary film Dam May Khong Dung Lai (The Cloud Doesn’t Stop) at the Canh Dieu Vang (Golden Kite) award ceremony in March. The film focuses on a Cham boy, who studies at the central Ninh Thuan Province’s Ninh Son High School. After class, he goes home and leads cows to look for grass to graze on and places to drink water in dry weather.

Why did you decide to make a documentary film on this theme?

I was very affected when I read a news article reporting that in central Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces during 2005-2006, more than 2,000 buffaloes and cows died because they didn’t have enough water and grass. It means that many people lost their property and livelihoods as a result of nature’s hardships. I wanted to express to these people my deep sympathy for their struggles with the film. It’s about people fighting for survival in a battle against nature in a poor region.

You specialise in making movies. Why did you decide to make a documentary film, when this kind of film doesn’t attract the attention of a large audience?

In 1992, curiosity pushed me to register for a six-month course on the techniques of making a documentary film taught by Robert Kramer, an American-French director. I made my first documentary film Chi Dung in 1993. This film was about a ballet dancer, whose legs were broken when a train ran over them just after she graduated in Russia with a degree in choreography. The film won the consolation prize from the Vietnamese Cinema Association. In 2000, the non-governmental organisation CARE hired me to make a series about domestic violence against women. When I first learned about the genre of documentary film, I was not that interested. But the more I learned about it, my interest grew and I found it to be the direct cinema of life. Cinema and documentary films can supplement each other, if film directors like me know how to respect the rules of the genre.

In the past in Viet Nam, documentary films played a big role in influencing public opinion. This is not the case anymore and documentaries are usually only presented on television rather than in movie theatres. Viet Nam should have concrete measures to popularise documentary film, because it can play a key role in educating people about life.

Which genre of film do you find most challenging to create?

They are all difficult. While movies are mostly creative inventions, documentary film has to respect the truth and requires an objective view. To avoid inaccuracies, only some of the characters have dialogue.

You were first trained as an actor. Do you know why you have had so much success as a film director?

Life is my teacher. On my career path, I have also been lucky enough to meet some wonderful teachers. My first teacher was late director Hong Sen. He was a very energetic man, who was always determined to do everything he wanted to do. He was very compassionate, and his films reflected this. I was his assistant for six or seven years, but I never got direct training from him. However, when I saw his way of working, I learned many things.

My second teacher was Robert Kramer. I’d like very much to dedicate the prizes won for the documentary film Dam May Khong Dung Lai to him. The job of a movie director is not something that can really be learned, but on the other hand, if you do not learn certain skills you can not become a good film director. Learning from life, from the people around you is the best way to learn.

Almost all actors, who graduated from the same class as you in 1976 became well-known and won over audiences, including Phuong Thanh, Minh Chau, Thanh Quy, Bui Bai Binh, Dieu Thuan. What does this say about your class?

I think we have been successful for several reasons. Besides the talent we were born with, we received very good training and had a favourable working environment. We were 26 students but we had 27 teachers. Almost of us have received at least a national prize.

You are an actor, a film director, and a teacher. What is your main job? The revenue from making films is not big, so how do you live?

When I begin to do any job, I always try my best. I have worked in the cinema sector for 35 years. This job doesn’t condemn us to a poor life, but it doesn’t promise a rich life either.

Sometimes I asked myself which job I did during my previous life, and therefore in that life, God ill-treated me and forced me to become a film director, having to be exposed to the sun and the rain all time. When I make a film, I have never said to myself that the hardship will be rewarded by the glory. I’ve experienced tiredness and hardship daily, but I believed in the path I am walking on. I have travelled a lot with this job, and see my life as one filled with luck.

Could you share something about your personal life? Is it true that your job as a film director is one of the reasons for your shattered marriage?

Happiness can not last between a man and wife, when the man must travell all the time to make films and can not look after his her and the children properly. Only a woman with a generous heart can accept a husband who has outside fame, but doesn’t really exist in the family. After the divorce, I still lead a single life. My way is full of hardship. Even if I were to get married now, I could not give my wife a happy life.

Do you have any advice to the husbands who work as film directors, who want to preserve the family’s happiness?

It’s too difficult for me. The job of a film director is one with very little security for a family’s happiness. So advice is give up the job. My experience tells me that only very few directors are happy, the remaining majority have to withstand sacrifice and hardship to experience happiness.

VietNamNet/VNS