Home is a blue dragon

Full-length documentary film

The new documentary project «Home is a blue Dragon»deals with the effects of dioxin from herbicides used in Vietnam during the war Vietnam War in 1965-72. (see also http://www.ligtherthanorange.com). I am planning a feature-length documentary about a family in Phú Province Thọ, Tứ Xã Huyện Lâm Thao, about two hours drive to the northeast of Hanoi. As a thematic extension of the movie «Lighter than Orange», in which twelve veterans were the representatives for millions of victims, in this project I would like to concentrate only on the family of Bùi Phục Hưng and Chử Thị Thắng. More than twenty years ago Her daughter Bùi Thị Mến (38) suddenly lost her memory. Up to the age of seventeen, Mến went to school quite normally, she liked drawing exactly as much as her father. My reference to the protagonists: I got to know the family in 2012 when we were shooting the movie «Lighter than Orange». They gave me as gift a farewell diary from the war´s years. Since then I have had a friendly relationship with Hưng´s family. In 2014 and 2018 we met again at the film screenings that I organized at the Friendship Village and Geothe-Institut in Hanoi, with the support of colleagues and students from the University of Applied Sciences Europe Berlin. The project will show the rural life of the village Tứ Xã Huyện Lâm Thao. The crew is deliberately composed only by few collaborators, in order to change the daily routines as less as possible. The background is the following: Usually one cares for the illness within the closest family circle, assistance and help from the outside are not expected. The question of guilt is often answered by Vietnamese people in this way: If it wasn’t us, then it would have hit someone else. The village is a very small settlement in which rice is cultivated as everywhere in the country and has a simple infrastructure. The closest specialized clinic is in Hanoi. Here the genetic modification was diagnosed to Mến . The camera will move quietly and reservedly. The film will take life from penetrating observations of the family´s routines, from their movements in the house, the garden and through the village. I direct the project as a filmmaker. with the help of two professionals assistants, who support the project as voluntary: Kin Wah Lok (China) and Kimia Kazemi (Iran) The soundtracks will be folcrosistically played during the takes, possibly at parties or other gatherings. The tunes will be sung by the professional singer Dương Kim Ánh, Hoi An, Vietnam (see song example) Example of a song lyric: Home is a sweet star fruits that a child picks every day. Home is a way to school on which a child sees many yellow butterflies on the way home. Home is a blue dragon with which a child plays on the rice field. Home is a small boat that swings undisturbed on the river. Home is a small bamboo bridge on which the mother comes back with her hat worn diagonally. Home is a moonlit night in which the terrace is covered with white fallen betel palm blossoms. Home has each only one, just like only a mother. He who does not miss his homeland will not become a good man.

The film is an independent project.

This film is intended to represent the fate of thousands of Vietnamese families who are still suffering from the effects of dioxin. It is intended to raise funds to improve the medical care of Mến.

Costs for filming: Equpiment, transport costs and accommodation of the film crew in Tứ Xã Huyện Lâm Thao

The filming will take place in February/March 2020 and acquired means are needed: rent of the equipment, the technical insurance, the transport costs to Hanoi and back, two weeks accommodation for the film crew in the small village Tứ Xã Huyện Lâm Thao (North Vietnam) as well as 12 days translators (Vietnamese>German/English)