To
get to know Dominique more ... To
get to know Dominique more ... The is one of those who are back at the end of the day and set off when night falls. Whenever he's coming back from somewhere he is ready to go somewhere else. Nevertheless, that inveterate nomad, that is the way he calls himself, is attached to some particular places where he owns nothing. It is more than 20 years since he started travelling across Asia, from the Middle to the Far East.
In 1976, he set off on a long journey which led him from the foothills of Hymalaya to Japan in order to study buddhism. By means of his documentary " Au fil des Temples et des Pagodes " he tells us about his encounters and discoveries there..... In 1980, he spent several months on the border between Kampuchea and Thailand in khmer refugee camps. He made a film "Il était une fois le Cambodge ". In 1984 he was the only film maker who was allowed to produce a film on the occasion of Pope Jean Paul II's visit to Korea. That was when the first canonization was celebrated, exactly where the martyrs lived. There were one million believers and it was magnificient.
In the meantime he made several visits to Thailand, India, and even Burma which was then very difficult to enter. But he would come back to the South East of Asia. He feels attracted, captivated and fascinated by this part of the world where the divinities coming from India combine with wisdom coming from China. About Indochina, as Conrad Malte-Brun named it so well in 1810, Erwan BERGOT worte something in his beautiful book " Sud Lointain" that Dominique GRANDVUINET likes quoting. He said :" Indochina is an illness you can't cure, you can only relieve it by living there".
None of his ancestors ever came there. This passion is his, and it belongs to him. Perhaps he will tell you that once as a child, he found in an attic and old geography book, yellowed with age. He opened it and he happened to see the Vietnamese map . Then he was astonished to discover words such as Cochinchina, Annam and Tonkin. From that very moment he resolved to go there.
In september 1993 he first got to Hanoi and what he discovered there matched what he had imagined in his childhood. During this first visit he travelled about the country from North to South and he finally decided to shoot a documentary film. He asked the Vietnamese authorities if he could produce it but he was impossible because there was no possibility to develop films of 16 mm in the country. However he was contacted by the Vietnamese Cinema Institute that had noticed his project.
Then he went there very often (19 visits were necessary for him to produce his film) and his first contract of coproduction was signend in Hanoi in July 1995. Then he had to find partners to set up the budget. It took him two years to go through all the necessary stages. This project was supported by the Minister of Foreign Office, the Poitou-Charentes local government, the city of Lyon's, the Allier country counsil, the Ambassy of France in Hanoi, the A.C.C.O.R. company, the L.P.H. laboratories , the Vietnam Arlines and theVietnamese Cinema Institute.
Finally the film was officially presented in Hanoi on october 21st 1998 in presence of the authorities of the Department of Arts and members of the French Embassy. Dominique GRANDVUINET has his commentary tranlated into Vietnamese by a distinguished French speaking Professor of the University of Hanoi : Monsieur PHAM QUANG TRUONG.
So the film was made in French and Vietnamese, and the Vietnam Airlines will probably dub it in English, too.