Film screening «CNC #11: ốc mang mình ốc» (the snail carries itself)

   Twenty seats, an address that only reaches you by email, and a programme of experimental films made in New York by filmmakers living far from the places they call home. Nothing on Hanoi's regular cinema listings looks like this, so if you have ever wondered what independent experimental work feels like on actual film stock, this is the kind of screening worth knowing about.

   «the snail carries itself» is a series about independent experimental films from New York, hosted by film programmer Thuy Duong (Thùy Dương). It brings together work by ten filmmakers: Sim Hahahah, Lucas Kane, Roula Nassar, Cameron Granger, Shenghan Gao, Tashrika Sharma, Starr Jiang, Mars Verrone, Gloria Chung and Armon Mahdavi. What connects them is displacement and departure. Through experimentation with film formats — 16mm and super 8mm — along with sound design and editing, temporality and reality turn fantastical, while adoration, nostalgia and concerns about patches of memory become crystalline in each frame.

   This is the eleventh edition of Chùm Nho Cinema, a screening series curated and coordinated by the TinyGrapes team under the Proactive Audience Network (PAN). Earlier editions carried Phạm Thu Hằng's post-war documentary «The Future Cries Beneath Our Soil» and «from Home to Home», three shorts tracing director Ostin Fam's own filmmaking path.

   The evening suits anyone drawn to cinema outside the commercial circuit — film students, image-makers, or simply someone who would rather spend a night watching something considered than sitting in another bar. With just 20 seats, the room feels closer to a private screening than to a cinema.

   The venue is not published. Organisers send the address in a confirmation email within 72 hours to everyone who registered successfully; if you registered and nothing arrived, check your spam folder or message the PAN fanpage directly.

   Worth knowing if you have a seat:

• — Doors open at 19:00 for seating and drink orders, and close at 19:30.
• — The ticket covers one drink; outside food is not allowed.
• — This is a non-profit programme — all ticket fees go towards running the event.
• — By attending, you agree to let the organisers use your images and opinions to document the programme.

   All films are in English, with Vietnamese subtitles.

   Every one of the twenty places went through the registration form, and that form has now closed — the organisers have announced that CNC #11 is no longer accepting registrations. If this one got away from you, the PAN fanpage is where the next Chùm Nho Cinema edition will be announced, and twenty seats are worth watching for.