The independent Italian filmmaker Davide Dominici has dedicated his time to making several short films which vividly depict the daily lives and work of the Vietnamese people he met during his stay in the country.

All seats were filled up in the recent screening session of Dominici’s documentary series titled “Chan dung Dong Nam A” (Portrait of Southeast Asia) at Decibel Lounge, 79/2/5 Phan Ke Binh, District 1, HCMC.

The main characters in Dominici’s films are working people whose jobs will get obsolete or change beyond recognition in the future.

5 portraits were presented during the session. One of them was Ba “cut” (One armed Ba), an old man who has one of his arms amputated and lives alone in a hut along the Saigon River, just behind the skyscrapers. Every day, he goes fishing using his remaining arm and his own technique.

Another was Van Tien, an old man in his 80s who remains lucid and agile. Every Tet (Traditional New Year holidays), he brings his brushes and paper from the countryside to Le Van Duyet temple in HCMC to perform calligraphy writing and do the paintings with a unique technique.

Others are a musician who plays Cambodian “arak” music in a traditional ritual to pray for good health for the sick; historian Nguyen Duy Hong, who has collected and preserved the precious materials on traditional Vietnamese water puppetry, and a female “tuong” (traditional opera) artist in Hanoi, who shares confidences about how her art is threatened by the trendy types of entertainment.

Dominici is a ‘wandering’ man who came from the fashion capital of Milan in northern Italy, where he was quite successful in the roles of a model and actor. After seven years working in Prague in the Czech Republic, he decided to follow a girlfriend of Vietnamese origin in her return to Vietnam, where he stayed for more than two years to make this documentary series “Portrait of Southeast Asia.”

“I suddenly got lost in a country where somehow with magic, a “xe om” (motorbike taxi) driver manage to sleep right on his motorbike on the sidewalk and where there’re noisy food and drink stalls at night and people chat amicably. All of this prompted me to make films which capture the precious moments of the lives which have many stories to tell,” shared Dominici.

Each film is approximately 15 minutes long, recording the characters’ daily lives and their working days. The filmmaker didn’t put in any of his comments or viewpoints in the films. The entire content are what the characters said on the background of “nhac ngu cung”, Vietnam’s traditional pentatonic-scale music.

Dominici made the films entirely on his own capital. Each film took him some four months including working out plots, getting to know the characters, film shooting and editing. The works will then be posted on the Internet so everyone can watch and share. “My films are totally free. I do not produce the films for any organization or earn money from them!”, he stressed.

Last month, he returned to Italy after more than two years growing attaching to the country and its people  and making seven films. He said he will come back to the Southeast Asia and continue his journey to another country.

Those interested can check out Dominici’s documentary series “Portrait of Southeast Asia” on his website www.davidedominici.com.