More than 140 black-and-white and colour photos featuring the history and development of the Southern Cinematography and Photography Branch (SCPB) during the 1940s and 50s are on displayed in HCM City. VNA/VNS Photo by Thu Hương.

HCM CITY — A photo exhibition about the history and development of the Southern Cinematography and Photography Branch (SCPB) is being held in HCM City. 

The event features 140 black-and-white and colour photos highlighting the Vietnamese motion picture industry during the 1940s and 50s, with the opening of the SCPB in 1947.

The screening of revolutionary films by talented directors such as Mai Lộc, Khương Mễ, Trần Kiềm, Tuyết Trinh and Nguyễn Thế Đoàn are also included.

The SCPB opened in the Đồng Tháp Mười region (now located in Đồng Tháp, Tiền Giang and Long An provinces) in 1947.  

SCPB artists worked hard to make lively revolutionary documentaries and films. Some of them died during the anti-French and American wars. 

The first work of SCPB was Chiến Trận Mộc Hóa (The Mộc Hóa Battle), a documentary by the late cameraman and film director Khương Mễ and his colleagues, celebrated artists Mai Lộc and Vũ Sơn.

The film was released in December 1948 and features the victories of Battalion 307 of the Việt Nam People's Army. 

It won the Silver Lotus award at the second Việt Nam Film Festival in 1973. Director Mễ received the Licorne d’Or at the Amiens International Film Festival in France in 1997. 

“Our students have watched documentary films by the late and talented film director Khương Mễ many times at school and on television, but they’re still fresh in our mind. I think his films are canonical works of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema sector,” said Nguyễn Minh Hằng, a final-year student in film directing at the HCM City University of Theatre and Cinematography. 

“Revolutionary films by SCPB help young people of different generations learn about the country’s heroic history and culture,” she added.  

Hằng and her friends visited the event’s opening ceremony on October 12. 

“The HCM City Cinematography Association should work to maintain the quality of films produced during the revolution in the South because they are part of the country’s history,” said a representative of the Việt Nam Film Institute in Hà Nội.  

The exhibition, organised by the HCM City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and its partners, is being held at the General Sciences Library of HCM City on 69 Lý Tự Trọng Street, District 1.

It will close on October 23. — VNS