It’s not easy to disentangle the web of culture that weaved through the Southeast Asian region. Here, ways of living and beliefs are continuously displaced by and merged with new ones, escaping the simplicity of Western nation-state boundaries. Lands are fertile yet unstable, inviting natural disasters as well as continuous extraction and political contestation at the expense of the people. Setting off to interrogate the cultural artefacts and memories that stubbornly remain in their fractured present, our filmmakers divest from the colonial ways of establishing authority of knowledge over their subjects. These films propose creative speculations based on correspondences, close reading of archives, mythologies, to oral history and lived narratives.
This program is a curated collection of short films by contemporary Southeast Asian artists, focusing on themes of colonialism, land, and the ethnographic gaze. While the curators initially planned it to address the significant underrepresentation of Southeast Asian art in Dublin’s cultural scene, its purpose has now become critically urgent. In direct response to the devastating natural disasters that have recently struck the Philippines, southern Thailand, central Vietnam, and western Indonesia, this event has been transformed into a fundraising initiative. All donations collected will go directly to vetted relief efforts in these affected regions.
Letters from Panduranga
35 min, Vietnam, 2017
The essay film, made in the form of a letter exchange between a man and a woman, was inspired by the fact that the government of Vietnam plans to build the country’s first two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan (formerly known as Panduranga), right at the spiritual heart of the Cham indigenous people, threatening the survival of this ancient matriarchal Hindu culture that stretches back almost two thousand years.
At the border between documentary and fiction, the film shifts audience attention between foreground and background, between intimate portraits and distant landscapes, offering reflections around fieldwork, ethnography, art, and the role of the artist.
Nguyen Trinh Thi
Nguyen Trinh Thi is a Hanoi-based filmmaker and artist. Traversing boundaries between film and video art, installation and performance, her practice currently explores the power of sound and listening, and the multiple relations between image, sound, and space, with ongoing interests in history, memory, representation, ecology, and the unknown.
Nguyen’s works have been shown at international festivals and exhibitions including documenta, Artes Mundi, Lyon Biennale, the Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Sydney Biennale, the Mori Art Museum, and Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial.
A Tale of the Crocodile's Twin
18 min, Indonesia, 2022
The conflict between humans and crocodiles at the estuary of the Palu bay was first archived during the reign of the Dutch government, in the 1930s. The incident is known as the shooting of La Garoba (a crocodile) by John Fischer, using gold bullets. After that, pieces of human bodies were found inside La Garoba’s stomach. This story later became a lullaby for the children as well as an attempt to forbid them to bathe in the river. Long before that, a human named Lasa Kumbili is said to have been born with a crocodile twin. When Lasakumbili died, his twin brother Yale Bonto (a crocodile) escorted his body by boat across the Palu river to his hometown, in Sarudu, Bamba Buo (Kabonga Besar).
The relationship between humans and crocodiles, also a similar story, still applies today at the estuary of the Palu bay. Along with the construction of the sea wall which slowly affects the ecosystem and behavior of Crocodylus porosus. In the red zone (tsunami-prone zone), humans are increasingly encountering crocodiles. They promise the ‘water dwellers’:
“I am here, you are there, we share space.”
Taufiqurrahman Kifu
Taufiqurrahman Kifu is an interdisciplinary artist. His previous works often explore the body, space, and archives within vernacular, abstract, and imaginative frameworks. His short film, A Tale of the Crocodile’s Twin (2022), received a Special Jury Award at the Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in 2023 and has been screened at various international festivals. It has also been presented at academic forums, including the Visual Documentary Project at Kyoto University (2023) and the 12th Biennial Association for Southeast Asian Cinema Conference at Chiang Mai University (2025).
He has also served as a jury member for the student competition at the 2025 Jogja Documentary Film Festival (FFD Jogja) and as a member of the selection committee for Arkipel: Jakarta International Documentary & Experimental Festival. He currently serves as the artistic director of the Festival Film Tengah (Palu). Several of his works, including photography, video art, and paintings, have been exhibited at ICAD: Indonesian Contemporary Art & Design and the Indonesian National Gallery.
Here We Are
20 min, Thailand, 2023
A housekeeper receives a film made by her daughter. The film, combining found footage of Thailand during the Cold War with present-day images of Bangkok, triggers a re-telling of her own story of coming to the capital.
Chanasorn Chaikitiporn
Chanasorn Chaikitiporn is a filmmaker and moving image artist whose interest lies in exploration and interrogation of socio-political histories of Thailand. His works examine questions on culture, political thought, identity and personal historical memory through the lens of semi-coloniality.
To Pick A Flower
17 min, Philippines, 2021
My mother used to tell me that our dining table was as old as I am. I wonder how old the tree was when it was cut down to be turned into our table. I am fascinated in this kind of transmutation from the natural world to the human one, and how a tree takes on new lives long after it has been cut down. This video essay incorporates archival photographs from the American Colonial Era in the Philippines (1898–1946), exploring the sticky relationship between humans and nature and their entanglements with empire. Taking plants and trees as starting points, it aims to reflect on the intertwined roots of photography and capitalism in the Philippines.
Shireen Seno
Shireen Seno is an artist and filmmaker whose work addresses memory, history, and image-making, often in relation to the idea of home. A recipient of the 2018 Thirteen Artists Award from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, she is known for her films which have won awards at Rotterdam, Punto de Vista, Shanghai, Olhar de Cinema, Vladivostok, Jogja-Netpac, and Limxa and have screened at New Directors/New Films, Yebisu International Festival of Art & Alternative Visions, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Tate Modern, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Portikus, NTU Center for Contemporary Art Singapore, Taipei National Center for Photography and Images, Museum of the Moving Image, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MMCA) Seoul, Museum of Contemporary Art & Design Manila, and MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum, Chiang Mai. 02 Seno was a 2022 Film Fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin program.
Before the Sea Forgets
17 min, Vietnam, 2025
On Da Nang’s peninsula, where echoes of war linger, a gay tourist couple searches for a forgotten Vietnamese soldier’s grave, shadowed by a mysterious skate crew carving their own paths.
Lê Ngọc Duy
Born in 2000 in Da Nang, Vietnam, Lê Ngọc Duy is a filmmaker whose work explores the politics of memory, queer expression, and Central Vietnamese heritage. Using a blend of narrative, essayistic, and archival forms drawn from his own family and hometown, his recent works question the influence of official narratives on shaping collective memory and how dominant systems construct history.
His latest short film, “Before the Sea Forgets,” premiered at the 2025 Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, where it was nominated for the Queer Palm. A recipient of Prince Claus Fund’s Seed Award and CJ Short Film Project’s production grant, he participated in the 2025 Locarno Filmmakers Academy and was selected as an Artist in Residence at the Kurzfilmtage Residency @ Villa Sträuli. His works have screened at festivals worldwide.
Beyond filmmaking, Duy is committed to building a critical film culture in Vietnam. As a member of A Sông Collective, he organizes and co-curates Cinema Con Nha Ngheo (Cinema of Peasants), a grassroots initiative promoting local independent cinema since 2023. He is also the founder and programmer of the Ho Chi Minh City-based arthouse and experimental film series “chớp bóng.” His past work includes collaborations with arts and educational organizations such as Autumn Meeting, Queer Forever, and Hoa Sen University.
Thursday 11 th December 2025
7:00pm – 9:30pm
A4 Gallery & Garden (BYOB)
7:00pm: Arrive and get comfy in our gallery or have some pre chats in the garden.
7:20pm: The film screenings will start and run for approx 1 hour, 30mins.
8:50pm: We will move to our garden for post chats and drinks.
This event is masked and takes place in our gallery which is wheelchair accessible and is seated. There is an accessible toilet on the ground floor. Our full access information is below.
€7.00 – €21.00
100% of income* received from the purchase of tickets will go directly to vetted relief efforts in these affected regions.
In addition to ticket sales we encourage everyone who can to make an additional donation at the time of booking or on the night of the event to help raise as much funds as possible.
Can’t attend but would love to support? Please purchase a solidarity ticket and/or make a donation via our shop!
*All artists involved will be paid appropriate fees via WOWTE programme funding
Curators
Nguyễn-Võ Bảo-Hân
Bảo-Hân is a cultural manager and visual artist from Nha Trang, Vietnam. She holds a BA in Arts and Media Studies with honors from Fulbright University Vietnam and is currently pursuing an MA in Art and Social Action at NCAD Dublin as a GOI-IES scholar since 2024.
Han’s practice combines visual ethnography and archival research, using documentary photography, experimental film, and community-centered curation to reimagine fragmented histories through vernacular narratives. She co-produced ‘Lèm dì dị Open Studios’, Nha Trang, Vietnam, 2023−2024; ‘As Time Gone By’, Da Nang Fine Arts Museum, Da Nang, Vietnam, 2024. Han’s short films trace urban memory of modern Vietnam, from vanishing river systems to playgrounds eclipsed by gentrification. Her graduation project, ‘As Water Erodes’ (2024) wove personal archives and oral histories to interrogate historical amnesia along the coastal hinterlands of central Vietnam.
Han’s works have been presented in ‘Roots and Worlds’, HCMC/Hanoi, Vietnam, 2024; ‘Photocamp with Lam Duc Hien’, Hue, Vietnam, 2022; ‘toi CAB anmai residency’, Hoi An, Vietnam, 2021. Her collaborative work includes Hagait Ni, a Cham music heritage initiative, and Mai-Marai, a touring performance on Cham preservation. Since relocating to Ireland, Han’s current research is to assert her socially engaged practices from an auto-anthropological positionality, addressing identity dissonance, precarious work, and labor immigration among Vietnamese immigrant workers at nail salons.
Dini Adanurani
Dini Adanurani is an independent film researcher, critic, and curator from Indonesia. She is fascinated by post/colonial narratives, mediated experiences, and the perpetual overwriting of the past with the present. Her practice engages with and reflects on existing works of cinema, visual arts, or small everyday narratives, experimenting with various mediums from text, moving image, performance art, to human encounters.
With the archive study group Kultursinema, she did a research on the state-produced newsreel Gelora Indonesia and the traditional martial art film Harimau Tjampa (1953) between 2019 to 2021. She was involved in Apresiasi Film Indonesia (2023), a research project that maps the spread of film communities in Indonesia. She has selected films for ARKIPEL – Jakarta International Documentary and Experimental Film Festival. As a film writer, she has worked with various film publications and festivals such as MUBI Notebook, Variety, photogénie, Jurnal Footage, Aspek Rasio, Locarno Film Festival, and International Film Festival Rotterdam.
She is currently attending Film Memory, an Erasmus Mundus MA on European Film Heritage, History, and Culture.
The Common Thread
The Common Thread forms part of our WOWTE Programme. It is a series of experiments and happenings that serve as an ongoing public discussion, drawing out shared themes and engaging audiences in an ongoing conversation about the goals and strategies of social change: what kind of society do we want and how should we get there?
Access Information
Our building is situated off Upper Dorset Street approx 14 mins from The Spire.
DETAILED DIRECTIONS
Walking & Wheeling
O’Connell Street: 14 mins from The Spire (directions)
Phibsborough: 11 mins (directions)
Bus
Luas
Parnell Stop (Green Line): 10 mins (directions)
Dominick Stop (Green Line): 12 mins (directions)
Broadstone Stop (Green Line): 12 mins (directions)
Abbey Street (Red Line): 17 mins (directions)
Dart
Drumcondra Station: 13 mins (directions)
Tara Station: 24 mins (directions)
Connolly Station: 28 mins (directions)
Car
There is onsite paid parking nearby our building, with a larger carpark located at The Mater Hospital.
Mater Hospital Carpark: 4 mins (directons)
Accessible Parking
There are 30 accessible parking spaces nearby our studios between 2 and 8 mins away.
Parking 2-3 mins away:
- Nelson Street: 1 space, 210m
- Hardwick Place: 1 space, 220m
- Eccles Place: 2 spaces, 220m
- Eccles Street: 3 spaces, 230m
- Hardwicke Place: 1 space, 220m
HEALTH PRECAUTIONS
What We Will Do:
Provide FFP2 masks at the door for all visitors.
Air purifiers with HEPA filters will be running in the gallery.
A CO2 monitor will be at the gallery door.
Doors will be opened regularly to ventilate the room.
All staff will take an antigen test on the day of the event.
What You Can Do:
If you feel newly unwell, or have been in contact with someone who has been sick in the days before the event, please stay at home.
If you can afford to, please take an antigen test before coming to the event.
If you test positive for Covid-19 or the flu, please stay at home.
If travelling by public transport or taxi please wear a mask for your journey.
Ensure to wear a mask indoors at all times.
OUR BUILDING
Arriving Here!
When you arrive at the gallery there is a kerb outside as part of the pavement which you may need to navigate depending on the direction you arrive.
There is a small slope at the entrance at the desk where the material of the floor changes from cement to a tiled surface.
The door will be open and there will be a staff member to greet you at the front desk.
The front desk will be immediately in front of you approx 1m from the front door.
The Gallery
Our gallery is located on the ground floor and is accessible.
It is located about 5m from the front door.
There is a small ramp into the gallery space.
The floor is currently suspended wood.
Our garden can be accessed via the gallery.
The Garden
The door to the outdoor area is straight across from the gallery door, and a distance of approx 5m.
The outdoor area has heating which can be turned on and off to suit your needs.
The outdoor area has a garden with a covered seating area with wooden benches, wooden and plastic stools.
There are additional wooden benches is covered with an awning. This area may offer less protection from the wind or rain.
There are a number of wind breakers installed around the garden to offer some protection from the cold in winter.
To the back of the garden there is a mezzanine which is accessed by approx 15 steps with wooden benches
BATHROOMS
Ground Floor Toilet
All bathrooms & toilets are gender-neutral.
There is one accessible toilet in our outdoor garden area. It is a portaloo.
First Floor Bathrooms
All bathrooms & toilets are gender-neutral.
There are three indoor bathrooms which are not accessible.
The indoor bathrooms are located on the first floor via a flight of stairs (approx 22 steps) so may provide difficulties for folk with movement impairments.
EVENT INFO
Seating & Comfort
Seating
There will be a selection of seating including 6 soft chairs, and plastic canteen chairs with chair pads.
If you require a comfortable chair please let us know when booking your ticket.
We will reserve comfortable seating for anyone that lets us know at the time of booking.
You can also email us via indigo@a4sounds.org or let us know on the night. Please note we can not guarantee a comfortable seat on the night due to the limited number available, bue we will do our best to accomodate you.
Beds / Laying Down
There is a large structure which has 4 large beds with screens to view the films while lying down.
There are two capsules at the bottom on the structure with beds, and two additional on top with beds which can be accessed via approx 6 steps.
The top level may be difficult to access for persons with restricted mobility.
Blankets & Cushions
There will be additional blankets and cushions throughout the gallery.
Lights & Video
Lights
The room will be dimly lit with LED spotlights .
Lights will be turned down during the screenings.
There will be no flashing lights.
Film
Filmss will be played on a large screen using a projector.
There will be no flashing or glitching video
Sound
Sound
Sound will be played on a PA system.
The volume will not be excessively loud.
There will be no loud, sudden or overly harsh noises in the films.
HOW TO BOOK A TICKET
Booking Link
You can book your visit via the link below:
Page 1
First, select your preferred date and time to visit from the drop down menus. You can find them on the right handside of the page underneath the description of the event.
Next, if you have accessibility needs, click the box inside the pink area underneath accessibility needs section. Skip this section if it is not applicable.
Next, if you would like to make a donation, please enter the donation amount inside the box in the section marked pink
Next, click the add to cart button which is located below the total amount.
The screen will refresh. Now you will see a ‘view cart‘ button on the top right of the screen. You can also click the shopping cart icon on the top banner area.
Page 2
There is no shipping required for this booking, so please click the ‘continue to check out’ button
Page 3
Fill out your billing information in the pink box.
Next, the subscribe to our newsletter button is automatically checked. If you do not wish to do this uncheck this box. It is just below the pink box
Important
Next, if is the if shipping details are different to billing details. Please click the heading of this section so it closes and no longer requires details to be inputted. This is important to be able to check out without errors.
Next, scroll down and check the I have read the terms and conditions box
Next, check the I am not a robot box
Finally, click the place order button.
Confirmation Page
You will now come to a confirmation page. You do not need to do anything further. We will have your name ready at the door to check in.