Maria Tran: Australian National University

Thursday, May 5, 2011

TRAVELS: Guest lecturing at the Australian National University (ANU) Canberra

No sleep and an early 5am start this morning as I drove 3 hours straight (micro-slept a handful of times) to Canberra for a guest lecture on the topic of "Virtual Migrations" for Dr Ashley Carruthers, who belongs to the school of Archaeology and Anthropology. I had 60 mins to showcase my works to 40 vying students in Dr Carruthers class on the topic of cultural identities, the current situations within the Vietnamese community and also the setbacks and progressions.

The term "Virtual migration" was new to me. I eventually found out that it was the movement of resources and attention across the borders, without having to physically move. For me, that was a revelation. I don't have to move overseas permanently to make movies. I can be based in one location and still assist on projects, depending of the stages of development and if my skills are on par, and needed, duck over to work intensively on it.

Finding identities is important to people's lives and the lecture that I was giving, also gave me a chance to reflect my inner thoughts and outer explorations in the realm of film, art & culture.

I also highlighted the "Quest for Jackie Chan!" project as my transmedia little (big) experiment and getting evaluating people's reactions solidified the importance of my inners and outers and also to consistently upload these vital processes online.

The screening of "Hot Bread Shop" was quite positive and much positive reactions. In general - it was funny, a fresh take on an old story and engaging. I must admit, for "another on the fly production" (you would of got it by now, I'm a doer, half the time just using my intuitions and not sure where I'm heading) and to have this level of connection, it just tells me that I should be more confident with the work I do, have faith in the people I connect and invite people to give real feedback.

On the other hand, "Hot Bread Shop" has been taken into offense with members of the community. Some say I'm a Serial Shit Stirrer, I have issues with my femininity (WTF? interesting feedback...) and like taking the piss out of things.

Hmm...maybe its too early for mockumentaries in the Vietnamese community? We'll soon find out on this Saturday, 6.30pm @ The Shed, Carramar. All I know is, if I start hearing crickets during the screening, that's my sign to slowly slip into the darkness and get the f*ck out of there. The politics of filmmaking - it can get deadly serious.

6.30pm - Got home and celebrated my Dad's birthday. I'm not sure how old he's turning but he's losing his marbles every now and then and goes into a comedy fit (pure content in the making...my crazy family...my inspiration).

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Internet II: Alternative Media guest lecture at Australian National University

Joseph Hieu (JH) & Maria Tran (Emtee) had an early burly road trip to Canberra for our first ever Vietlish lecture. We’ve done books launch, stamp launch, feature film launch, radio launch, weddings, funerals, protests, commorations, tennis awards, national concerts and now we hit the Australian National University with special thanks to Dr Ashley Carruthers.

Its funny that it was only a year ago that the adventures of two Australian-Vietnamese buddies decided to “go against the grain” and activate their minds and “voices” in as many realms of life.

With a small intimate crowd of 50 studying academics at one of the world’s prestigious universities, JH & Emtee tag teamed it out to deliver some of their introspection of their beloved community and showcasing both “Vietnamese Stories” & “Vietnamese Storycubes” – an Australian, and most likely world first intergenerational projects.

Joseph Hieu (JH) informatively highlights some of the Vietnamese media landscape: both in mainland Vietnam and the Vietnamese diaspora. With particular references to recent controversies such as the Don Ho communist entertainment star (double meaning to these words written so please read again) and also the outline of the main media honchos and the effects of government controlled vs non government controlled media. He also took an extra step to highlight the diasporic sensitivities and symbolic taboos that are still prominent; almost 35 years since the aftermath.

Maria Tran (Emtee) focus of the lecture were all things “digital” and showcased 3 mini-films made by her students Ook, Huyen & Vinh from the “Vietnamese Stories” program. She also retold the Vietlish journey and what this accidental formation and its effects that has “narrowcasted” itself on a global scale.
In addition, Maria showed the Vietlish episode featuring “Don Ho” and the gungho approach in interviewing and braving out the silly questions that has been received as a refreshing approach.

She was honest to point out Vietlish’s haphazard beginnings and online and social networking experiments that put them on the radars of Vietnamese media landscape worldwide.

“Yup, we are gungho & guerrilla!” confirms Maria.

“But at the same time, still focus on the bigger picture, that is all the Vietnamesey people worldwide” adds Joseph.

A shout out to Shaun Cheng who took some work time out to come check us out. Big apologies that we couldn’t stay back to have lunch which he so kindly insisted on ANU’s famous chicken burgers.

Nevertheless, we left on a good note with the promise to meet and again. Shaun suggested that we drop in on The Bakery of Goulburn – thanks for the advice – we did.

RANDOM SHOTS AROUND CAMPUS