Statement 2019
Transcription of the statement for the 21st Biennial
During the shooting of Nikki’s Here, I allowed all possible experience that was released through the characters. One moment, while shooting Nikki, she told me that I’m too “intellectual,” and that’s very uncomfortable for her to expose herself. I decided to drop off any possible cinema theories or technical matters that I could to break that wall. Watching the cut, I suddenly realized how my perspective has been passively shaped by Vietnamese and American culture & media relations. The meeting between Nikki and Calvin is the in-between myself and others. Differences in cultures between the two are the causes for their understanding and marriage.
Although I didn’t intend to, I believe this film can deliver a contemporary message when it comes to feminism and its relation to Nikki’s story. When it comes to the boundaries between reality and fiction, I see this movie as a documentary sequence: they date online, then become a married couple, Nikki consults tarot with a friend, the dog dies, and she is a tantrika. The rest is fiction based on Nikki’s projection, without the filmmaker’s direct experience. However, reality and fiction are not two for me, because in the end it has been edited as one story from the filmmaker’s perspective.