NEWS

REAL Documentary Film Festival Laurels

21 APRIL 2023 · INAUGURAL REAL DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL SCREENING 

Dust & Metal will screen on 21 April, 2023 during the first edition of this new festival taking place at the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester. Director Esther Johnson will be on hand for a post screening Q&A, and will also participate in the Industry Panel Adventures in Archive at 4pm. Further information can be found on the festival website HERE.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Following Esther’s presentation at the Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival Conference on 8 March, she will also present papers on ‘Dust & Metal’ during the following conferences:

Heritage, Community, Archives: Methods, Case Studies, Collaboration, taking place at Sheffield Hallam University 12—13 June

 Shaking the Archives, taking place at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, 23—25 June 

CONFERENCE PRESENTAIONS

Esther discussed ‘Dust & Metal’ at the following conference and symposia:

— 25th January 2023 Scotland Showcase at Celtic Connections British Council Symposium, Glasgow

— 25th January 2023 Incorporating the Archive London Short Film Festival, Richmix, London (Esther participated online due to speaking at the Glasgow event on the same day)

— 5th December 2022 Disrupting Dominance in the Archive London College of Communication

6 OCT 2022 · WORLD PREMIERE WITH 5.1 SOUND MIX ANNOUNCED

This premiere is scheduled to take place 9 November 2022, 9pm at Leeds International Film Festival in the Vue Cinema at The Light, Leeds. The film will be followed by a Q&A with director Esther Johnson and producer Lisa Brook. Further information can be found on the festival website HERE.

Sheffield DocFest 2022

31 MAY 2022 · WORLD PREMIERE ANNOUNCED

We are delighted to announce that ‘DUST & METAL’ has been selected to premiere with live score by Xo Xinh at the 2022 Sheffield Doc/Fest. The premiere will take place in the magnificent Memorial Hall in Sheffield’s City Hall, on the evening of 27 June 2022. Further information can be found on the festival website HERE.

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25 MAY 2022 · ASIAN CINEMA AND FILM HISTORY CONFERENCE

Esther discussed ‘DUST & METAL’ with Dr Lin Feng for the closing session of ‘Forgotten Popular Culture: Asian Cinema and Film History‘ conference convened by the University of Leicester.

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23 MAY 2022 · SHADOW SCREENS CONFERENCE

During the ‘Shadow Screens — Unmade, Unseen, Unreleased Film and Television‘ conference held at Sheffield Hallam University, Esther presented the process behind the making of ‘DUST & METAL’ and the intracacies of working with footage from the Vietnam Film Institute.

DECEMBER 2021 · NARRATION REHEARSALS

In preparation for recording, rehearsals took place at TPD Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents with actres Nguyễn Lan Hương for the voiceover for ‘DUST & METAL’. Lan Hương is the star of Dang Nhat Minh’s 2000 feature ‘The Guava House’ amongst many other Vietnamese films.

16 JUNE 2021 · SUBMIT YOUR FOOTAGE

The DUST & METAL team invite you to submit your video footage, audio recordings, photographic stills or written texts related to motorbikes in Vietnam to be preserved for posterity. In addition, you have the chance for your footage to be selected for inclusion in the final feature film. Footage chosen for ‘DUST & METAL’ will be paid 800,000 VND (£25) per minute and a film credit will be included.

In order to capture a breadth of material, the project team have created a Vietnamese—English digital web resource to which crowdsourced video footage, audio recordings, photographic stills, and texts can be submitted. The aim is to create an alternative collection of publicly sourced material accessible by all. A selection of the material will be integrated into the ‘DUST & METAL’ film. Assets will be uploaded under creative commons licensing terms, allowing anyone to download and remix material to create a new work for non-commercial purposes. The website will have a dedicated area in which newly remixed motorbike-themed works can be re-uploaded. The crowdsourced footage will thereby reappear in new contexts and forms. elate to the theme of motorbikes in Vietnam.

Contributions are welcome from everybody. We can’t wait to see what you’ll submit.

SUBMIT HERE

MAY 2021 · PRODUCTION

A crew from TPD: Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents commenced production filming in locations in and around Hanoi.

28 MARCH 2021 · SCREENING

A screening of ASUNDER followed by a Q&A with director Esther Johnson via video call took place at TPD Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents in Hanoi for film students and members of the Dust & Metal crew.

20 JANUARY 2021 · BRITISH COUNCIL FUNDING

The British Council have announced that ‘DUST & METAL’ (Bụi và Kim loại), the second feature from director Esther Johnson (ASUNDER 2016), will receive funding of £50,000 from their Digital Collaboration Fund, enabling completion of the film in the face of significant barriers posed by the pandemic. With production disrupted and travel not possible to complete the film in Vietnam, the Live Cinema UK-produced project will partner with the Vietnam Film Institute and Hanoi-based film collaborative TPD: The Centre for Assistance and Development of Movie Talents, to remotely produce an innovative archive documentary, sharing never-before digitised archive materials between Vietnam and the UK. ‘DUST & METAL’ will utilise archive and newly shot footage to bring real stories of freedom in Vietnam past and present to the screen, through the unique relationship with the country’s ubiquitous mode of transport: the motorbike. A new electronic score by Vietnamese artist Xo Xinh and sound artist Nhung Nguyen will be devised with the unique aim of being performed live as a “cine-concert” for the project’s initial festival run. The work lays new ground for the repositioning of, and accessibility to, rare archive film: in the vein of Johnson’s first feature ‘ASUNDER’, ‘DUST & METAL’ will comprise primarily archive footage alongside newly shot footage from Johnson during initial production in Vietnam in late 2019.

Esther Johnson, director of DUST & METAL:
Much of my work is concerned with uncovering alternative social histories and this project is all about stories connected to Vietnam’s unique relationship with the motorbike. On first arrival in Vietnam I was hypnotised by the swarm of motorbikes and was exhilarated getting around Hà Nội on the back of a bike. Bikes are such a powerful symbol of Vietnam’s history: the popularity of motorbikes now replacing the mass bicycle use in the 1950-70s that was crucial for the transportation of supplies during the war in Vietnam. Both cycles and motorbikes are invaluable for navigating Vietnam’s ‘hẻm’ alleyways too narrow for cars. The current independence and freedom of Vietnam motorbike culture reminded me of Hồ Chí Minh’s famous quote, ‘Nothing is more precious than freedom and independence’. I am fascinated by archive film and this project is designed to offer a new perspective of Vietnamese cultural heritage and place through the synergy of collaging heritage and new film, with contemporary music and traditional instrumentation. During the development of the concept for ‘DUST & METAL’ I was fortunate to view material held in the Vietnam Film Institute archives and am excited to be working with both VFI and TPD on the project and am grateful to British Council for supporting this new initiative.”

‘DUST & METAL’ is the first feature project to be produced by Live Cinema UK, with founder Lisa Brook as producer. Lisa’s previous short and mid-length credits include ‘The Unfilmables’ live score project with BAFTA and Oscar-nominated composer Mica Levi and her sister Francesca directing, and a recent lockdown commission with Haiku Salut recording new scores to shorts from the BFI Archive, ‘DUST & METAL’ is a major step forward for Live Cinema UK and the artform of live cinema.

Lisa Brook, producer of Dust & Metal and director of Live Cinema UK:
“Since the founding of Live Cinema UK in 2014, I’ve wanted to work towards creating a feature film which builds on the concept of a live score at point of production, with the idea of a live soundtrack performance shaping the creative direction of the project from the outset. I didn’t think our first feature would end up being co-produced from the other side of the world during a pandemic of course, but the British Council have shown their trust in us being able to achieve this with ‘DUST & METAL’. Creating a focus on the cine-concert for the initial run is something we don’t think we could have achieved with traditional production funding routes for documentary, but is a route that British Council Arts teams both in the UK and Vietnam have been incredibly supportive of during project development, and now are integral in realising the final project during the most testing of times.”

‘DUST & METAL’ is now in production with a completion date of Q4 2021, with a festival run in late 2021 and early 2022; premiere to be announced. The project is seeking festival engagements, sales representation and distribution in the UK, Europe, Asia and North America. All enquiries: lisa@livecinemauk.com

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12 MARCH 2022 · LONDON SCREEN’S ARCHIVES CONFERENCE

For the ‘Future-proofing Our Collections: Unleashing the Power of Archive Film‘ London Screen’s Archives conference, Esther was invited to discuss her working methods of integrating archive material into her films. Esther’s presentation included the development of ‘DUST & METAL’, in addition to her 2016 feature film ‘ASUNDER‘.

Nhung Audio Recording on Long Bien Bridge

24 JUNE 2019 · ARRIVAL IN VIETNAM

“As soon as I arrived in Vietnam it was as if I was floating through a waking dream — the kind of dream you don’t want to wake up from, but also the kind of abstract dream full of wonder, truths and uncomfortable histories. Ha Noi activated many lines of enquiry inspired by the unique mixed landscape and urban realm, infrastructure and heritage sites, all interlaced with the organised chaos of traffic. I found the country magnetic and the best way to experience this landscape was by motorbike.”
— Esther Johnson

Vietnam Film Institute Film Research

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NOVEMBER 2019 · ARCHIVE FILM RESEARCH AT THE VIETNAL FILM INSTITUTE

Esther undertook initial research in the archives of the Vietnam Film Institute in Hanoi, looking at 16mm and 35mm film, and video material. Further visits to the archive were scheduled for 2020 but unfortunately these had to be cancelled due to Covid travel restrictions.

Hanoi Traffic

24 JUNE 2019 · ARRIVAL IN VIETNAM

“As soon as I arrived in Vietnam it was as if I was floating through a waking dream — the kind of dream you don’t want to wake up from, but also the kind of abstract dream full of wonder, truths and uncomfortable histories. Ha Noi activated many lines of enquiry inspired by the unique mixed landscape and urban realm, infrastructure and heritage sites, all interlaced with the organised chaos of traffic. I found the country magnetic and the best way to experience this landscape was by motorbike.”
— Esther Johnson