French filmmaker François Bibonne (R) in the trip of making "Once upon a bridge in Vietnam"
Bibonne spent his childhood filled with unforgettable stories of Vietnam that were told by his grandmother, Therese Nguyen Thi Koan. He came to Vietnam for the first time in 2018 after the death of his grandmother.
The French director was completely mesmerized by Vietnam, from Hanoi to HCMC, and countryside areas and realized a connection with Vietnamese traditional music after having many exchanges with local artists.
He spent 15 months going across the country to explore landscapes, culture and Vietnamese people and learn about theaters and stages in provinces and cities that are expected to be presented in his next projects, focusing on natural scenes and traditional costumes and music.
The French filmmaker was impressive by a violin class in a pagoda in the Then village in Bac Giang Province, the preservation of Bac Ninh's Quan Ho traditional singing by the local people, and the story of an old brass trumpet that had been carried to the northern province of Nam Dinh by the French since the 19th century.
Therefore, his movie portrays the traditional music of Vietnam that is considered as a cultural bridge between Vietnam and France.
In February, "Once upon a bridge in Vietnam" won the award for Best Short Documentary Film at the Los Angeles Film Awards in the US.
François Bibonne hoped the documentary moviewill be presented to Vietnamese audiences as soon as possible. The film project also calls people to contribute to a fundraising campaign for providing a wider platform to show the documentary film to the world. Additionally, ten percent of the total amount will be used to support the bamboo planting program in the northern province of Yen Bai where the director shot a part of the documentary.
He said that the documentary kicks off his long-term project on Vietnamese classical music. He will return to Vietnam in August to shoot another film on music in the Highlands Central, Hue City, HCMC and Con Dao island in the native language of the Bana ethnic people, study the space of gong culture in the Vietnam Highlands and the state of electronic and Vietnamese traditional music.
