As a filmmaker, portraying your own family challenges you to find a balance between the artistic film you have in mind, maintaining the right amount of distance, and the emotional journey this entails. In this talk, Carol Nguyen and Louis Hothothot, both of whom have films premiering in the International Competition, will explore this process with Dana Linssen.

Following his father’s death, in The Year of the Ghost Louis Hothothot turns the camera on his mother and sister in China. With fearless affection, he explores how misogyny has affected the lives of the women in his family across generations. In Still Night, Burning House by Carol Nguyen, the filmmaker’s family travel to Vietnam to reflect on their loss and grow closer nearly twenty years after the sudden death of Uncle Thach. Both filmmakers have previous experience of making films that examine family history, memory, and the lasting impact of social and political structures on intimate lives.