CONNECTIVITY THROUGH CINEMA PRESENTS:
Thời Thơ Ấu, 2023
With Vi Tuong Bui presenting in person.

FRIDAY APRIL 28TH @ MONO NO AWARE : CINEMA ARTS NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION
33 FLATBUSH AVENUE, BROOKLYN NEW YORK - LIMITED ATTENDANCE TO 28 - MASKS AVAILABLE
DOORS 7PM – STARTS PROMPTLY AT 7:30PM – $5 SUGGESTED DONATION * PLEASE RSVP HERE

TRT, 15 minutes. Additional time for discussion / Q & A with artist Vi Tuong Bui IN PERSON

PROGRAM INCLUDES:

Thời Thơ Ấu - Vi Tuong Bui
2023 / color / sound / 14’ 00’’ / 16mm >> digital

Thời Thơ Ấu explores my understanding of my bố mẹ as people outside of their roles as my parents through looking at how they dream for their late parents and homeland as former refugees of the US War in Vietnam / Vietnam War. What concessions will I need to make to begin to see my parents as expansive individuals? What will I gain from embracing them in their fullness?

I collected their dreams, stories, and memories using 16mm and Vietnamese and in my childhood home in Annandale, Virginia and Queens, New York. Vietnamese is the mother tongue of my parents, but English is the language I know myself by. We spoke in Vietnamese for the making of this film, and I slowly translated their words to English. -

After creating still images on 35mm for the past nine years, the camera became an extension of myself and an active part of understanding and encountering the world around me. My transition from photography to filmmaking as my main practice of artmaking emerged during the pandemic out of a necessity to remind myself of who I am and to begin inserting my Vietnamese American and Asian American identity into my moving image making work. I am interested in using 16mm to explore, memorialize, honor, and archive stories of my lineage as the daughter of former Vietnamese boat refugees.

ABOUT : 
Vi Tuong Bui (b. 1999) is a Vietnamese American photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. Born and raised in Annandale, Virginia, she is the daughter of former boat refugees from the Vietnam War / US War in Vietnam. She uses photography to interact with the world in an intentional and unhurried way – armed with a 35mm camera, she searches for something grand in something small. Her films explore themes related to memory, family, childhood, dreams, intergenerational trauma, loss, diaspora, language, translation, and Vietnamese and Asian American identity. She uses 16mm to create documentary, autobiographical, and archival based moving image work. Vi graduated from Franklin & Marshall College (2021) with a joint major in International Studies and Government and a minor in Spanish. She is a member of the Brooklyn based cinema-arts and film community Mono No Aware. Vi is a 2022-2023 Production Workshop Fellow at the alternative media arts and social justice driven organization Third World Newsreel in New York City. She has screened her films at Anthology Film Archives and Visual Studies Workshop.

MONO NO AWARE SCREENING SERIES:
The CONNECTIVITY THROUGH CINEMA series will present the work of artists, film-makers and curators who are traveling or presenting special interactive programs in-person. Our hope is to engage the community by showing work with a focus on post-screening discussion.