By Kimi Takesue
Heaven's Crossroadraces an impressionistic journey through Vietnam exploring the nuances and complexities of "looking" cross-culturally. Structured in a series of observational yet stylized vignettes, this visually driven experimental documentary investigates shifting relationships of voyeurism and intimacy, while linking the observer with the observed. Takesue's mesmerizing cinematography captures sweeping country landscapes and cities in motion, provoking questions about what it means to truly see another culture.
Heaven's Crossroad charts a singular journey yet it also explores common desires which surface through travel: the desire to be transported to another place; to communicate beyond language; the desire to arrest time and repossess a moment, a glance, a feeling, an encounter—transforming mundane events into moments of surprising beauty and an utterly new way of seeing.
Reviews
~ "A treasure...A lyric travelogue."- Nathan Lee, New York Sun
~ "An extended mediation on the nature of sight...recalls nothing so much as the travel diary of a master poet."- Peter X. Feng, Ph.D., University of Delaware
~ "Delivers a beautiful panoply of people, places, colors, languages and sounds from contemporary nothern Vietnam...would serve well in courses in anthropology, film studies, Southeast Asian studies and other fields moving beyond the older conceits of cross-cultural communication."- Glen Mimura, Asian American Studies, University of CA, Irvine
Awards
~ Sblack Maria Film & Video Festival- Juror's Choice Award
~ Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema- Best Documentary
~ Slamdance Film Festival- Spirit of Slamdance Award
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