Introducing past works from Visual Documentary Project , CSEAS Kyoto University, the screening event will feature two short documentaries and a talk session with three directors from Vietnam and Indonesia. We will discuss the background of their productions while sharing insights on life and death, connections, family, and the experiences as women navigating contemporary life.
This event is held as the fourth in the 2025 Contemporary Africa and Asia Seminars series of the Center for Africa-Asia Contemporary Studies (CAACCS), Kyoto Seika University.
Program
| 19:00–19:05 | Introduction |
| 19:05–19:45 | Director’s Statement and Film Screening of “August Letters” |
| 19:45–20:25 | Director’s Statement and Film Screening of “Golek Garwo” |
| 20:25–21:00 | Talk |
Moderator
Dr. Nang Mya Kay Khaing, Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Kyoto Seika University
Dr. Ayako Fujieda, Associate Professor, Kyoto Seika University
Panelists
Mai Huyền Chi (Chi Mai) from Vietnam
Xuân Hạ from Vietnam
Wahyu Utami from Indonesia
Haruka Iharada, Independent curator, lecturer at Kyoto University of the Arts
【Interpreter】Miho Tsujii
Films to be screened
1) August Letters, by Mai Huyền Chi (Chi Mai) & Xuân Hạ
(26min/ Vietnam/ Vietnamese/ 2021/ with English and Japanese Subtitles)
The call for submissions to the VDP arrived in August — a month marked by both mourning and celebration, as filmmaker Chi recalled the grief of her father’s death anniversary and celebrated the joy of her nephew’s birthday. Amid the stillness of the pandemic lockdown, she wrote and invited her dear friend, artist Xuan Ha, to join her in reflecting on life and death through their shared language: cinema. Exchanged across two cities as an epistolary cinematic montage, August Letters weaves together the private rituals and rhythms of their families. What unfolds is a meditation on love, grief, generational care, and the intimate politics of everyday life. Through observational fragments and correspondence, the documentary offers a tender portrait of contemporary Vietnam — where memory and kinship are held not just in words, but in gesture, presence, and image.
2) Golek Garwo, by Wahyu Utami
(30min/ Indonesia/ Indonesian, Javanese/ 2020/ With English and Japanese Subtitles)
Golek Garwo relates the story of an elderly man, Basri, his wish to get married again, and the expectations and reality he faces. This documentary offers a different take on the love that is usually expressed in romance films: always something beautiful and perfect in an ideal world. It depicts the simple and practical expression of love. It focuses on simple acts of intimacy; arguments between the bride and the groom and a sense of pride that stops them from expressing their true feelings. It also delves into the tension they experience living apart and working in two different cities.
Panelists
Mai Huyền Chi is a Vietnamese writer-director whose films explore memory, displacement, and belonging. She approaches filmmaking as an act of care, working collaboratively with communities over long periods to create cinema that reclaims overlooked histories and voices. Her debut short Down the Stream (2015), filmed with a stateless riverine community, was a Vimeo Best of the Year finalist. She co-directed The Girl From Dak Lak (2022), which premiered internationally and was nominated for IndieLisboa’s Silvestre Award. Her short fiction debut The River Runs Still (2024) screened at the New York Asian Film Festival, and her latest work, 50 Years of Forgetting (2025), was commissioned by Al Jazeera. She is currently developing her first fiction feature The River Knows Our Names, which follows stateless families living along the Mekong. The project received the Talents Tokyo Award and its Next Masters Support, amongst other international recognitions.
Xuân-Hạ is an art worker whose practice spans roles as an artist and organizer. Working across moving image, installation, and conceptual art, she translates personal and collective imaginaries into visual narratives. Her work creates discursive spaces that critically examine the fluidity of identity, the impermanence of place, and the fragility of cultural continuity amid social and environmental transformations. Her works have been presented at international film festivals and exhibitions, including the Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival 2025 (M+ Museum, Hong Kong), Painting with Light Film Festival 2022 (National Gallery Singapore), the Kyoto University Visual Documentary Project (VDP) 2021, and Jakarta Biennale ESOK 2021 (Museum of National Awakening, Indonesia), as well as at various independent and institutional art spaces nationally and internationally. Alongside her artistic practice, Xuân-Hạ is deeply engaged in cultivating local art communities in Vietnam. She is a co-founder of Chaosdowntown Cháo (HCMC, 2015–2019) and the founder of A Sông (Da Nang, 2019–present). She has been awarded for the International Future Leaders Program 2022-23 by The Australia Council for the Arts, and recently received the Fellows Award: Cultural & Artistic Responses to the Environmental Crisis 2024 (CAREC) by Prince Claus Fund.
Wahyu Utami is an Indonesian filmmaker and video artist born in Wonogiri, Central Java. She holds a postgraduate degree from the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Yogyakarta. Since 2016, she has developed independent documentary projects that have been screened at national and international film festivals. Her video works have been exhibited at institutions including the National Gallery of Indonesia and ICA Singapore. She is currently a Lecturer at Jogja Film Academy.
Haruka Iharada is a Lecturer at the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto University of the Arts, and an independent curator. Her research and curatorial practice explore how artistic and cultural practices engage with political and social issues and the lived difficulties faced in Okinawa and across Asia. Working closely with artists as both curator and activist. Her major curatorial projects include “Masking/Unmasking Death” (Chinretsukan Gallery, Tokyo University of the Arts, 2022) and “To Think on Your Feet — Strategies of Resistance in Art“ (Kyoto Art Center, 2024), as well as ongoing collaborations with Docu Athan. She also serves as a part-time lecturer at Kyoto City University of Arts and a Research Fellow at the Okinawa University Regional Studies Center.
Contact
VDP Secretariat, CSEAS Kyoto University
vdp [at] cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp (Please replace [at] to @)