The British Council is seeking expressions of interest for partners for Film as A Cultural Heritage – a programme exploring the use of Vietnam’s film heritage to benefit both practitioners and audiences and contribute to the development of the film industries as well as the heritage sector in Vietnam.
Please take note of the following key dates:
Stage 1: Expression of interest
Deadline for inquiries: 30 November 2019
Deadline for submission of expression of interest: 8 December 2019
Announcement of result (for award of funding): 16 December 2019
Stage 2: Programme development and delivery (for selected partners)
Programme development: 1–30 January 2020
Programme delivery: From 1 February 2020
We are looking for partners from both public and independent sectors to work with us in co-creating and implementing a programme that will:
- increase the access to Vietnam’s film heritage, in both institutional archives and private and personal collections
- nurture practitioners’ skills and diversify practices around working with film heritage
- create opportunities for collaboration and interaction between public, private and personal film archives and practitioners and the wider public.
Activities that might be delivered through the programme include: supporting programmers to put together screening programmes and discussion events; allowing creative practitioners (writers, musicians, visual artists, etc.) to explore holdings and to develop their own creative responses; community engaged projects that take archive film as a starting point to explore things like memory and place-making, e.g. working with the community in a place featured in archive footage, film industry workers, or memories of cinema going.
We are interested in all kinds of film heritage: feature films, documentary, animation, personal/home movies, video documentation, e.g. of intangible cultural heritage.
Background
Cultural Heritage for Inclusive Growth is a two-year pilot initiative, working in Colombia, Kenya, and Vietnam, exploring the use of cultural heritage for growth to benefit all levels of society.
Cultural heritage in this context means many things, from the constructed environment through to cultural traditions such as music and language. Inclusive growth means working with and for all levels of society in order to reconcile the divide between economic growth, and rising poverty and inequality.
In Vietnam, through engaging with elements of the country’s music and film heritage, especially those currently under-threat or under-represented, the project consists of two interconnected strands: Community Cultural Heritage, and FAMLAB (Film, Archive and Music Lab). Launched in April 2018, the project seeks to create opportunities for communities across the country to contribute to, and benefit from, the safeguarding and reinvigoration of their cultural heritage.
Music and film heritage, especially that of or representing marginalised groups (due to economic, social, or political reasons), including rural and ethnic minority communities, are becoming less and less relevant in the contemporary culture and society in Vietnam amidst the country’s continuing economic growth. A number of unique and valuable parts of Vietnamese film and music heritage receive very little attention and support and are therefore facing the risk of disappearing. This situation hinders the ability of the communities of the at-risk heritage assets to develop their human capital and contribute to the social, cultural, economic and environmental development of the country.
For more information please visit https://www.britishcouncil.vn/en/programmes/arts/heritage-future-past
Film as a Cultural Heritage
This initiative aims at increasing the access to and practices around Vietnamese film heritage through research and contemporary practices around film-making. The overall goal is to contribute to the safeguarding of valuable Vietnamese film heritage for the benefit of both practitioners and audiences.
Within the framework of this initiative, we see film heritage as film archives held in both government institutions and private and personal collections, as well as films documenting intangible cultural heritage of Vietnam.
This initiative builds on the knowledge and understanding about film as a cultural heritage that we have gained through the symposium and workshop programme Film as A Cultural Heritage held in January 2019. We recognise that Vietnam’s film heritage has such a potential in contributing to the development the film industries as well as the heritage sector, should it be continuously explored and engaged with through creative and educational practices. For more information of our previous Film as A Cultural Heritage please see the programme publication Dreaming/Remembering: Practices around Vietnam’s Film Heritage.
Submission
We invite expressions of interest from:
- institutional film archives, as well as private and personal archived film collections in Vietnam
- independent practitioners and organisations interested in working with film heritage.
Please provide:
- a description of the film heritage that you propose to make available or work with
- for institutional film archives please include indicative examples of films/materials that you will make available for the purpose of this project. Please specify to whom you would make the archives available to, whether they are practitioners or audiences, and how
- for independent practitioners and organisations please provide commitment of the film archive(s) that you will have access to and collaborate with for the purpose of this project, and how
- an outline of the ideas you have for an activity (or a series of activities) that would fit the purpose of using of film heritage to benefit practitioners and audiences
- a top line budget breakdown and total amount requested from the British Council
- a summary your experience, knowledge, connection, skill-sets, etc. that you believe would enable you to materialise your ideas
- contact information (name of key contact person, name of organisation, email address, phone, address).
What we offer:
- grant amount between £3,000–£10,000
- coordination and programme development support between 1–30 January 2020
- further project management support during programme delivery period.
Please send your proposal to vnarts@britishcouncil.org.vn before 8 December marked Yourname_FCH. We might contact you for additional information and/or for an interview between 9 and 13 December. We will endeavour to get back to you with the result by 15 December.
If you have any inquiries please contact us via the email address above before 30 November 2019.