Saigon Experimental Film Festival is a Ho Chi Minh City-based initiative launched in 2019 by two emerging artists and filmmakers which has since expanded to a larger team.
Each year, we curate a 1-2 day event bringing together a selection of short films - all experimental whether in narration, editing, or visual content - carefully chosen from an international pool of online submissions.
Our rhetoric is the following:
With a lack of new media taught in art school, no cinémathèques in the country, and limited diversity in mainstream cinemas, the realm of moving image is limited and restrained with little visibility for practitioners that work outside the norm. Concurrently, audiences possess few opportunities to experience new cinematic visions, always dependent on alternative cafés, spaces and galleries - which are few - to provide this missing content. This also means fewer opportunities for emerging Vietnamese artists or filmmakers to witness and explore what is being made elsewhere and inform their own work. Our shared love for this medium paired with a clear need for such events is what launched this initiative. While independent film programmes are usually curated with an aim to appeal to larger groups, or reliant on the films’ availability, SEFF encourages outsider visions and the unexpected. Our only requirements are films created within the last 5 years, under 15 minutes long and that possess an element of strangeness or experimentation, whether thematically, in montage, or in visual. Participants from all around the world are welcome to submit their work. Our aim is to promote diversity of voices, aesthetics, career stage and localities.
Team
Heidi E Cooper
Pham Nguyen Anh Tú
Mary Lou David
Nathan Collis
Van Do
Contact
E:saigonexperimental@gmail.com
@saigonexperimental
Each year, we curate a 1-2 day event bringing together a selection of short films - all experimental whether in narration, editing, or visual content - carefully chosen from an international pool of online submissions.
Our rhetoric is the following:
With a lack of new media taught in art school, no cinémathèques in the country, and limited diversity in mainstream cinemas, the realm of moving image is limited and restrained with little visibility for practitioners that work outside the norm. Concurrently, audiences possess few opportunities to experience new cinematic visions, always dependent on alternative cafés, spaces and galleries - which are few - to provide this missing content. This also means fewer opportunities for emerging Vietnamese artists or filmmakers to witness and explore what is being made elsewhere and inform their own work. Our shared love for this medium paired with a clear need for such events is what launched this initiative. While independent film programmes are usually curated with an aim to appeal to larger groups, or reliant on the films’ availability, SEFF encourages outsider visions and the unexpected. Our only requirements are films created within the last 5 years, under 15 minutes long and that possess an element of strangeness or experimentation, whether thematically, in montage, or in visual. Participants from all around the world are welcome to submit their work. Our aim is to promote diversity of voices, aesthetics, career stage and localities.
Team
Heidi E Cooper
Pham Nguyen Anh Tú
Mary Lou David
Nathan Collis
Van Do
Contact
E:saigonexperimental@gmail.com
@saigonexperimental