Introduction

Hello all,

Before i start, here is a brief intro to my blog:

I am a graduate student at the University of North Texas in the Radio-TV-Film department.  I received my BA from Texas A&M-College Station in History, with a minor in Film Studies.

I currently reside in Hanoi for the 2010-11 academic school year doing research under the U.S. Student Fulbright Program.

I am looking at Vietnamese films funded by Viet Nam's government within a transnational context, studying how these socialist realist films exist and evolve in Viet Nam's increasingly growing and globalizing "free-market" economy.  Concentrating on fictional narrative films from 1992-2002 (before and after the official "reconciliation" between Viet Nam and the U.S. in 1995), I am interested in seeing how these films imitate, reject, reinterpret, and interact with "Hollywood" styles and ideology.  I will also be conducting audience research in Hanoi to see how audiences receive these films in an environment where multiple influences exists: communism, "traditional" Vietnamese beliefs, East Asian values vs. commercialism, modernity, and the West.   

I will try to update weekly on my travels and research.  Post a comment if you like.

Hope ya'll enjoy!

Also, Legal note:

The posts on this blog are only my opinions and thoughts.  This blog is in no way associated with nor reflect the beliefs of the Fulbright Program, the International Institute of Education, the US State Department, or the US Embassy (or anyone important...).

tony