Several films on Vietnam’s sea and island sovereignty will start being screened at many big universities in the U.S. on Friday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism announced Tuesday on its website.

The “Facing to the Ocean: Selected Documentaries from Vietnam” event will show three films at 15 major universities in the northeast region of the U.S., including Yale University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the ministry said.

The films, to be screened from October 3, are “Nhung Cau Chuyen Nho Tren Bien Lon” (Little Stories in the Big Sea), “Hai Thuong Viet Nam The Ky 17-18” (Vietnamese Sea Trade in the 17th-18th Centuries), and “Cham Toi Bien” (Into the Ocean).

“Little Stories in the Big Sea,” a 30-minute film directed by Phan Huyen Thu, is centered on a group of people who are on the way to visit their husbands, sons, and fathers living in and defending the Truong Sa (Spratly) archipelago of Vietnam, Yale University said on its website.

It also tells the stories of two Vietnamese veterans who live in Thanh Hoa Province, located in the central region, who visit the graves of their sons for the first time since they were killed three and seven years back.

Director Phan Huyen Thu was born in 1972. She graduated in western literature from the Hanoi University of Social Sciences and Humanities in 1993 and participated in a training course in documentary film directing at Ateliers Varan, an association of filmmakers based in Paris, in 2006.

She has won around 15 prizes at many local film festivals, such as Bong Sen Vang (Golden Lotus), and the annual film festivals of the Vietnam Cinema Association like Golden Kite and Silver Kite.

An independent documentary film director, Phan Huyen Thu is also a well-known pioneer in the new poetry movement after 1975, when Vietnam was reunified.

She authored two impressive but controversial poetry collections including “Nam Nghieng” (Yearner Position) published in 2002, "Rong Nguc" (Empty Chest) released in 2007, and a soon to-be-published poetry book in 2014 entitled “Seo Doc Lap” (Independence Scars).

The 15-minute film “Vietnamese Sea Trade in the 17th-18th Centuries,” accompanied by a presentation by Tran Duc Anh Son, recites the journey out into the sea by the Vietnamese from the first century AD and their path to the world sea trade, especially in the Age of the Great Commerce in the 17th and 18th centuries, according to the Vietnamese culture ministry.

This is the time when such famous Vietnamese trade ports as Pho Hien, Cua Lo, and Cua Viet were extremely busy with the traffic of trade ships from China, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.

They came to trade while the Vietnamese ships also left out for other Asian countries’ trade ports. The film also indicates a few vestiges of Vietnamese maritime culture over the past few centuries.

Tran Duc Anh Son, who currently serves as vice director of the Da Nang Institute for Socio-Economic Development, received a BA and PhD in history in 1989 and 2002, respectively.

Son has also had teaching experience in Vietnamese history at some local universities, according to Yale University.

“Into the Ocean,” a 20-minute work by Le Ngoc Thanh and Le Duc Hai, is a mélange of memories between the past, the present, and the future of two brothers who find each other and through which discover their homeland and selves, the U.S. higher education institution said.

The twin brothers Le Ngoc Thanh and Le Duc Hai, born in 1975 in Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam, graduated from the College of Fine Arts in Hue City, also located in the central region, in 2000.

Quite active in the local art scene, they opened the New Space gallery in Hue the same year which has organized many exhibitions for Vietnamese and foreign artists.

Documentary on legendary General Vo Nguyen Giap

Besides screening films on Vietnam’s sea and island sovereignty, the “Facing to the Ocean: Selected Documentaries from Vietnam” event also introduces “General Giap,” a documentary directed by Tran Thuy Duong, the Vietnamese ministry said.

It was made based on the photography of American photojournalist Catherine Karnow and her long-time friendship with late General Vo Nguyen Giap and his family, it added.

The 45-minute film, to be screened in the U.S. for the first time, aims at marking the 60th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory – during which Vietnamese revolutionary forces completely defeated the French colonialists in 1954 – as well as bringing people a better understanding of the legendary Vietnamese general.

Tran Thuy Duong is the current host and producer of Talk Vietnam, the country’s first and only internationally broadcast English-language talk show, under public broadcaster Vietnam Television International (VTV4), Yale University said on its website.

She has a double major bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and French, which was earned from Mount Holyoke College (Massachusetts), and a master’s degree in international broadcast journalism from the University of Westminster (UK).

Catherine Karnow was daughter of American historian and journalist Stanley Karnow, who was known for his articles on the war in Vietnam and interview with General Giap for the New York Times in 1990, according to the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.

In 1994 which was the 40th anniversary of the Dien Bien Phu victory, Karnow was invited by General Giap to visit Dien Bien Phu, now a city in northern Vietnam. During this special trip, she took many precious photos of General Giap and became a close friend of the family of the general.

In “General Giap,” Karnow shares her memories of when she took photos of the late general, as well as her affection for the country and people of Vietnam.

General Vo Nguyen Giap, the first four-star general and the former commander-in-chief of the Vietnam Army, passed away on October 4 of last year in Hanoi, more than a month after he celebrated his 102nd birthday.

Born in 1911 in Quang Binh Province in the central region, he started his career as a history teacher before joining the army, eventually becoming the legendary general who led the Vietnam Army to victory against the French and U.S. forces in 1954 and 1975, respectively.

He commanded several major operations, including at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and Saigon (the former name of Ho Chi Minh City) in 1975.

General Giap served as Deputy Prime Minister and National Defense Minister from 1975 to 1980. From 1981 to 1991, he was Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers. His funeral, which took place in Quang Binh, attracted thousands of locals who queued for hours to pay tribute to the general.

The “Facing to the Ocean: Selected Documentaries from Vietnam” event is being organized by the Institute for Vietnamese Culture & Education in the U.S. with an aim to enhance the understanding of Vietnamese students abroad of the Southeast Asian country’s maritime sovereignty.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!