The Cinematheque

“The films of Trinh T. Minh-ha present an incisive critique of the structures of traditional Western documentaries, which so often depict ​‘other’ cultures in a condescending way. Rich, lyrical, fluid, her finely crafted cinematic style is distinctive. It incorporates complex musical structure, performances, text, jump cuts, long poised silences, and other techniques of avant-garde cinema to create a new language for film.”

National Gallery of Canada

Centre A and The Cinematheque, with support from SFU David Lam Centre and SFU Department of Humanities, welcome renowned Vietnamese-born artist, writer, and scholar Trinh T. Minh-ha for a special two-night program of her acclaimed film work. Subjective, self-reflexive, and intellectual, infused with feminism and anti-colonialism, and offering a dizzying array of sights and sounds, the award-winning ​“anti-anthropological” films of Trinh represent a startling reinvention of the documentary form. Two of these intoxicating nonfiction works—Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989) and Forgetting Vietnam (2015)—will screen at The Cinematheque, with Trinh on hand to introduce and discuss the latter, receiving its Vancouver premiere.