Vincent Baumont, the director of documentary ‘Red Over the Rainbow’, talks about his experience of documenting the LGBT movement in Vietnam.
By Sam Heaps ● Edited by Rose Arnold ● Photos copyright Almaz Media
‘Red Over the Rainbow’, a highly anticipated film by Almaz Media about LGBT people in Vietnam. & Of Other Things met up with director Vincent Baumont at his new workspace in Work Room Four where he was making some last minute edits on the film before its press screening last May.
The original idea for ‘Red Over the Rainbow’ came from Vincent’s partners Isaak Lê and Truong Uyen Ly after seeing the energy of Vietpride 2012. They started the project and when Isaak moved to California Vincent was sold enough on the idea to want to take over the production and keep it alive. Vincent explains why the story was one that grabbed him so. “It was just fantastic to see all this happening. The first gay pride in Vietnam, it was really important. Then that year in France was the year when the French government decided to allow same sex marriage, and there was a minority of extremists that were demonstrating all the time and getting all the media attention and it was really frustrating to see this. It was like, wow! Maybe you think Vietnam is very conservative but they might be more advanced than you in their opinions. And that is what made me really get into this project.” Vietnam might even be the first country in Asia to legalise gay marriage.
The film, which revolves around different ‘talking heads’ sharing their experiences to give an illustration of life for an LGBT person in Vietnam, climaxes with Viet Pride 2013 and the hopeful fervour of those involved.
Vincent and his team managed to speak to a huge range of subjects, from a 73 year old gay man to a young transgender woman giving a full spectrum of experiences. Finding these subjects wasn’t the difficult bit, what was harder was being able to access them in their daily lives in a way that was natural. There were many couples where one partner would agree to be filmed while the other would not so it was difficult to demonstrate the reality of a ‘regular’ relationship. “I think there are a lot of couples who just live their lives without any activist movement because to them it’s just their lifestyle, there’s no need to make much noise,” says Vincent.
Families were also difficult to access. For many LGBT people in Vietnam, coming out to their families is the hardest part because of the expectations that exist about marriage and children. Some of the people featured in ‘Red Over the Rainbow’ spoke of the difficulties they had explaining their sexuality to their families. Says Vincent: “The mother is [often] more understanding but of course they fight with the father but it’s getting better. Everyone has a different story but that is the most difficult aspect for the LGBT community in Vietnam, their relationship to family.”
Despite this there is a strong feeling of hope in the film for the progress of LGBT rights in Vietnam. When asked about whether or not Vietnam was ready for gay marriage Vincent responded with a resounding yes. “I don’t’ really see what would stop it. Vietnam’s very tolerant. There’s a lot of media personalities who came out like the designer Trung Anh who [appears] in the movie, I’m not sure society would be that shocked.” Vietnam is changing and evolving quickly and ‘Red Over the Rainbow’ is a documentation of this exciting change.
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