Documentary film memorialisation of Vietnamese indentured labour in France and New Caledonia: sighting history

Alexandra Kurmann, Tess Do*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    Abstract

    A suite of unexamined historical documentaries exposes colonial non-dits (what is left unsaid) of Vietnamese indentured labour in New Caledonia and France from the late 1900s to World War II. They build memorial structures connecting subjects in contemporary Vietnam with forgotten sites of trauma. Les hommes des 3 Ky (The Men of the 3 Ky) attaches memories of lính thợ (working soldiers) to French penal sites; Công binh, la longue nuit indochinoise (Indentured Workers: The Long Indochinese Night), set in Vietnam, artistically re-enacts French indenture. Chân Đăng, Vietnamese workers in New Caledonia, are memorialised in Ký Sự Tân Đảo (The Vanuatu Chronicles) and Biết Đâu Nguồn Cội (The Roots), which render cemeteries touristic discovery sites and anticolonial places of memory, respectively.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationRoutledge handbook of the Vietnamese diaspora
    EditorsNathalie Huỳnh Châu Nguyễn
    Place of PublicationLondon ; New York
    PublisherRoutledge, Taylor and Francis Group
    Chapter2
    Pages29-45
    Number of pages17
    ISBN (Electronic)9781003036104, 9781040004012
    ISBN (Print)9780367463960, 9781032537344
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2024

    Publication series

    NameRoutledge Handbooks
    PublisherRoutledge

    Keywords

    • Vietnamese diaspora
    • Documentary
    • Colonial history

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