Best young director of Amsterdam documentary film festival meets journalism students

Director Ha Le Diem - former student of K54 Journalism, Institute of Journalism and Communication, University of Social Sciences and Humanities - is no longer a strange name in the independent documentary filmmaking community in Vietnam as well as internationally. She is a filmmaker at Varan Vietnam, and a co-founder/producer at Doc Cicada - a group of independent filmmakers in Hanoi.

With a strong, decisive and independent personality, she was determined to pursue her passion for documentary filmmaking and left a special mark through films such as "Con di truong hoc" - Won the Silver Kite Award in 2013 in the short film category, the film "Nhung du tre trong dew" helped her win the Best Director award at the 2021 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

Returning to school after many years of working with documentaries as a speaker, meeting teachers and close friends, the former student of K54 had special emotions that were hard to describe. When asked about the opportunity that made her choose to pursue the path of independent documentary filmmaking, she shared: “When I was a second-year student, I participated in practical activities at the Center for Journalism and Communication of the Faculty of Journalism and Communication. At that time, the Center's equipment was not as modern as it is now, but the students studied with a strange passion. Then, my classmates talked about TPD's free documentary filmmaking course, I heard that I really liked it, so I signed up and from there I fell in love with filmmaking."

“Con di truong hoc” is Diem’s first film, which won the Silver Kite Award in 2013 from the Cinema Association. This is also her first short film, in which she took on all roles from director, producer to cameraman while she was still a student.

Her sharing about the process of studying and making films at the same time surprised the whole audience with her perseverance and overcoming all difficulties to complete the film: “Going to school is part of TPD’s second documentary filmmaking process. I studied at school and then took the bus back to my hometown in Bac Kan on the weekends to film, about 4-5 times like that and it lasted for about two months… After class at the lecture hall, I took the bus back to TPD to edit the film.”

In 2016, she learned about the Varan course in Saigon and decided to quit her job to attend. This bold decision paved the way for the success of the documentary “The Children in the Mist” with the Best Director award at the 2021 Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

Behind this success are many memorable and equally difficult experiences. Ha Le Diem's ​​way of finding inspiration and filmmaking ideas is very special: "When looking for ideas, I often travel, go to many places, and whenever I accidentally encounter a moment that is impressive and touching, I start thinking about it and make a film from those scenes."

Every scene in Diem’s films is a scene that is happening and about to happen, so she is filming while “looking for her film” without any preparation or script. Each character in her films has a special situation, such as the HIV-infected mother raising her child alone in “Con di truong hoc”, or the little girl Di standing between the boundary between ancient customs and modern values ​​in the film “Nhung du tre trong dew”.

To make the footage of the characters closer and more realistic, she had to invest a lot of effort and time. "Making a documentary is different from making a TV series. When making a documentary, you are with the characters and spend a lot of time with them," Diem shared.

There were times when she went to Sapa to make the film “The Children in the Mist”, she stayed there from a week to nearly a month, filming and living with the characters like a family member, doing farm work such as: planting rice, picking corn, herding buffaloes…

Answering students’ questions about the skills and lessons she learned while studying at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, now the Institute of Journalism and Communication, Ha Le Diem shared: “When studying photojournalism or television in class, the skills of how to set up the camera determine how you tell that story. The skills of searching for and processing information learned in university also helped me be more agile than my friends who did not go to school… If you love making films, you should also look for more sources to watch the types of films you like and find courses to hone your skills.”

Student Cong Ngoc Anh - K65 CLC Journalism student asked: "Why did you choose the highlands to make the two films "Con di truong hoc" and "Nhung dua tre trong suong" and what difficulties did you encounter?". Director Ha Le Diem answered: "I filmed and handled the technical aspects myself because the main reason was not having enough funds. Handling the sound myself by attaching a microphone to the camera led to limited frame selection, having to prioritize the sound for the characters. Therefore, I don't want to make films in the city because it is very noisy, and handling such noise costs a lot of money. However, I also like making films in the highlands because the sound there is very clear and peaceful...".

Sharing her experience in filmmaking, the young female director believes that the key to helping her pursue her passion and succeed is answering questions like: “Who am I? Why am I interested in this character? Why did I choose this topic?...”. These are very basic questions for me to find myself, find my passion, find my outlook on life, my worldview, which leads me to many places, many opportunities, many experiences.