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October 10, 2008
Q&A with Stephane Gauger
(Director of VIETNAM OVERTURES)
by Jason Soeda
Table of Contents
VIETNAM OVERTURES
Screenings

Photo of Stephane Gauger

Stephane Gauger

JASON SOEDA: Aloha, Stephane! It's wonderful to have you back at LVHIFF. The last time you came, you brought us OWL AND THE SPARROW, which nabbed the 2007 NETPAC Award. How excited are you to show VIETNAM OVERTURES to our moviegoers?

STEPHANE GAUGER: I'm very excited, of course. Hawaiian audiences are pretty friendly and receptive from my experience. And I haven't seen the film with a public audience yet.

JS: Tell me about the origins of VIETNAM OVERTURES.

SG: It was a music exchange program initiated by a Norwegian music festival with Vietnam. I love classical music, I love shooting in Vietnam, and I thought the film would introduce people to another facet of Vietnamese culture.

JS: As an independent filmmaker, do enjoy the challenge of working with limited resources?

SG: I actually do. Limited resources forces you to create things on the fly. It forces the filmmaker to go and strive for the bare elements to tell a story, without any bells and whistles. Basically a camera lens, a subject, and something to say.

JS: As an Asian-American filmmaker, who was born in Vietnam, do you feel a strong sense of obligation to create films that focus on the Vietnamese experience?

SG: I don't feel an obligation to do Viet-themed films, so much as a desire to make these films. There are lots of interesting stories to tell about Viet life, whether it's in the homeland or abroad. But yeah, it's great that more Vietnamese filmmakers exist now than before to pay homage to the culture.

JS: What do you want audiences to take away from your film?

SG: Vietnam Overtures is foremost a celebration of music, but I'd like to think that people will learn about how passionate and rich the Vietnamese music life is, because outside of the bubblegum pop world, classical musicians hardly make any money; they do it for the love.

JS: What was your biggest challenge in the production of this movie?

SG: The Ministry of Culture of Vietnam granted the permit to shoot, but for some crazy reason the Norwegian embassy in Hanoi were paranoid about me running around with a film crew, so they benched the production when we were almost done shooting.

JS: What's next for you, Stephane?

SG: Raising financing for SIMON AND THE STRANGER, a narrative about an ex-footballer from London who is coaching the Vietnamese national football team during the Asia Cup. It's large scale, so it requires me to hustle the streets of Hollywood looking for financial backing.

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