Mai Huyền Chi is a Vietnamese writer-director working across fiction and documentary film. Her work reflects on how history, power, and the politics of memory shape the stories we tell, while remaining attentive to the intimate lives unfolding within and against these forces.
Her debut short documentary, Down the Stream (2015), filmed with a floating stateless community near the Vietnam–Cambodia border, was a Vimeo Best of the Year finalist and screened at Winterthur. She co-wrote and co-directed the feature The Girl From Dak Lak (2022), nominated for the Silvestre Award at IndieLisboa. Her short fiction film The River Runs Still (2024) was selected for the New York Asian Film Festival. Her documentary 50 Years of Forgetting (2025), commissioned by Al Jazeera, examines the politics of memory surrounding the Vietnamese-American War.
She is a Prince Claus Fund Fellow (Moving Narratives) and was selected for La Fabrique Cinéma (Cannes) with her debut feature project.
Alongside her film work, Chi initiated and edited the anthology On Forgetting, founded Cinema CNN (Cinema of Peasants), and co-founded Gái Tệ Residency for FLINTA filmmakers of Vietnamese descent. These projects reflect an ongoing interest in how knowledge is shaped, shared, and contested outside institutional frameworks, and in building spaces for collective learning and exchange.
She is currently developing her debut fiction feature, The River Knows Our Names, as well as The Whale Hunters of Pamilacan, a participatory theatre-documentary project in collaboration with artists in the Philippines.
[FILMOGRAPHY]
THE RIVER KNOWS OUR NAMES (2027), 100', writer-director, in dev
Red Sea Development Fund, 2025
Qcinema Project Market Southeast Asian Award, 2025
Talents Tokyo's Next Master Support, Development Fund, 2025
Winner, Talents Tokyo Award 2024
SEA Feature Lab, Singaporean International Film Festival, 2021
Runner Up, SEA Pitch, Bangkok ASEAN Film Festival, 2021
The River Award, Hanoi Winter Film Residency, 2021
Locarno Open Doors, 2021
Udine Far East Award, Hongkong Film Financing Forum, 2020
Focus Asia Project Market, Far East Film Festival, 2020
THE WHALE HUNTERS OF PAMILACAN (2026) | 50', director, in-dev
Recipient, British Council's Connecting Through Culture Grant
WHERE SHALL I LAY THIS BODY (2026) | 20', director, in pre-production
Winner, Interfilm Script Pitch 2025
50 YEARS OF FORGETTING (2025) | 48', director
THE RIVER RUNS STILL LUA (2024), 14', Writer-Director-Producer
Official Selection, New York Asian Film Festival 2025
MY NAME IS (2022), 25', Writer-director-editor, in-post
BEBESEA Fellowship, 2022
AUGUST LETTERS (2021), 27', Director/ Editor
CineLAB, Think City, Penang, Malaysia, 2025
Kyoto University’s Visual Documentary Project, Best of 2021
“Till Later Letters”, Group Exhibition, Á Space, Vietnam, 2022
Kyoto International Film and Art Festival, Center for SEA Studies, 2023
Overshare Film Festival, Testing Grounds, Melbourne, Australia, 2023
"Fractured Lens: Memory, Archive, and Photography at an Intersection”, screening & artist talk, Sàn Art, Saigon, Vietnam, 2023
THE GIRL FROM DAKLAK (2022), 87’, Writer/ Co-Director
Nominee, Best Feature Film, Silvestre Award, IndieLisboa International Film Festival, 2022
Nominee, Best Film, D’A Film Festival (Spain), 2022
A BRIXTON TALE (2021), 90’, Writer
Nominee, Best Narrative Film, Slamdance International Film Festival Official Selection 2021
Winner, Best Picture, Cineuropa Award, Festival International du Film de Mons, Belgium, 2022
MY MR. WIFE (2018), 90’, Writer
Best Pictures, Golden Kite Film Festival, 2019
DOWN THE STREAM (2015), 4', Director-Editor-Producer
Official Selection - Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur 2017
Finalist – Vimeo’s Best of the Year 2015
Winner - Reel Health International Short Film 2015 (Australia)
2nd Place Winner - MY HERO International Film Festival 2015 (USA)
[PUBLICATIONS]
2. SMALL WARS: THE WAR IN OUR MINDS, Review of My-An Le's "Small Wars", Mat Ca Photography Magazine, 2019
3. RE-READING GREENE, A modern woman's take on Greene's "The Quiet American", Mekong Review, 2018
4. IT’S A LIVING: LIFE & LABOR IN VIETNAM (2013-4), photographer & contributing writer, National University of Singapore Press, translated & published in Vietnam in 2014
[SHOWS/
RESIDENCIES
EXHIBITIONS/
PUBLIC TALKS]
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ON RECIPROCITY, seminar/ workshop/ residency hosted by Think * Think, Kuching, Malaysia
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FOR NOW I JUST FOCUS ON BEING NANA (A MEDIATION ON LIFE AND DEATH), "On Reciprocity" Group Exhibition, Think & Tink, Kuching, Malaysia, Mar-Jun 2025
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THREE ACTS (2021), video, Bar de Force & Goethe Institute
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WHEN YOU END AND I BEGIN (2021), web-based video performance, White Distance Residency, Heritage Space
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HER-STORY (2020), dance short, iwith choreographer Sunyoung Grace Lim
Arabesque Open Stage 2020 -
X PROJECT (2019), dance teaser/ short, with choreographer Ngo Thanh Phuong
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BECOMING SKY (2020), video installation, Heritage Space, Vietnam
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THE TALKS (2019-20) dance video/ multi-channel video installation
CABCon 2020
Arabesque Open Stage -
PALAO (2018), dance show teaser, Lune Productions
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IT’S A LIVING (2013), solo photo exhibition, Vietnam
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CHUNG TA DI (2011), group exhibition, photos, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
