The chronicle documentary titled “Viet Nam 54 dan toc” (Vietnam’s 54 peoples), which features Vietnam’s ethnic minorities in their living environs, is on air on HTV7 starting June 11.

The 150-episode series, aired at 10:40pm from Monday to Thursday every week, begins with northern Hoa Binh province, considered the living space of ancient Vietnamese as well as Muong minority.

The series also brings into focus the minorities scattering in the northern mountainous region, plains, central region, the Central Highlands and the southern region, along with the Kinh people who make up the majority of Vietnam’s population and live across the country.

This is one of TFS’s big projects in 2012 and is invested by HCMC Television (HTV).

During the eight months working on the series, the film crew was faced with numerous difficulties regarding means of transport, climate and the reservation and reluctance to speak about themselves among members of the ethnic minorities.

Despite the difficulties, the crew managed to film captivating scenes, including Lo Lo minority’s dances, Mong minority’s funeral, and Thai and Dao minorities’ weddings.

It took them some consecutive weeks to track down some minorities, like the Ngai people in northern Thai Nguyen province, whose distinctive cultural traits are fast eroding due to impacts from Kinh people and the Chinese Vietnamese.

Kho Mu people, also known as La Vang (Yellow leaves) also struck a strong impression on the crew with their tradition of building homes from leaves, and moving to another place when the leaves turn yellow. This tradition, however, has disappeared altogether.

“Several films have been made on Vietnamese ethnic minorities so far, but in my opinion, “Viet Nam 54 dan toc” still stands out for being highly systematic and generic. We tried our best to provide viewers with as much information on the peoples’ costumes, housing, cuisine and music as possible. Hopefully apart from being broadcast on television, the series will be shown to local students as a useful, intriguing extracurricular activity,” said the series’ scriptwriter and director Do Ben.