Short Films

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Rather Than a Great Tree, Laden With Sweet, Ripe Fruit: 17th Istanbul Biennial

ELEMENTAL FREQUENCIES: HOW TO IMPROVE THE WORLD?
CAI TIEN THE GIOI

• Director: Nguyên Trinh Thi
• VIETNAM / 2021 / DCP / Colour / 46’ / Vietnamese; Turkish, English s.t.

• Screenplay: Nguyên Trinh Thi
• Director of Photography: Jamie Maxtone-Graham, Ta Minh Duc
• Editing: Nguyên Trinh Thi
• Producer: Nguyên Trinh Thi
• World Sales: Nguyên Trinh Thi

Set in the Central Highlands of Vietnam where a large concentration of groups of indigenous people live, Nguyên Trinh Thi’s How to Improve the World is a film about listening. An exercise in deep listening to the fading sounds of an oral tradition, Nguyên’s latest work reflects on the differences in how memory is processed between the culture of the eye and that of the ear, while observing the loss of land, forests, and the way of life of the indigenous people in this part of the world. The work foregrounds indigenous sound, voice and music against the contemporary backdrop of a land transformed by Christianization, war and socialism. Resisting the westernised reliance on images for creating narratives, telling stories and experiencing the world, the film turns to music and sound as a way of perceiving through listening.

This film will be screened together with Tellurian Drama and Mud Man.

This film was a Meetings on the Bridge participant.