If Heaven Awaits (2024)
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Year of production: 2024
Duration: 6’39’’
Written, directed, and produced by Hà Đào
With Jin Jin & Ngọc Nâu
Filmed and edited by Linh DN
With support from the Prince Claus Fund & Experimenter
If Heaven Awaits portrays the Hải Phòng born and bred Dung Hà (Vũ Hoàng Dung), a notorious gangster who used to monopolize gambling sites, adopt a masculine appearance, and openly date women. Together with illegal activities, her sexuality was the subject of discussion and ridicule in the public eye. She was shot point-blank by her rival in the year 2000; the assassination shook Vietnam's underworld.
A fictional rendezvous between the long-gone Dung Hà and her old flame, rumored to be her one true love, plays out along the 2000s pop ballad Đêm Nay Anh Mơ Về Em (“Dreaming of You Tonight”). Adopting the aesthetic of music videos from this era, the work centers lesbian longing and butch/transmasculine expressions against the backdrop of heteronormative pop culture.
The remade music video is installed between two crystal cubes engraved with images of Vietnam's first-ever casino and Dung Hà's final resting place: two castles, remnants of empires long faded.
Open studio at Manzi Art Space, 2024
Exhibition at Dogma Collection, 2025
Duration: 6’39’’
Written, directed, and produced by Hà Đào
With Jin Jin & Ngọc Nâu
Filmed and edited by Linh DN
With support from the Prince Claus Fund & Experimenter
If Heaven Awaits portrays the Hải Phòng born and bred Dung Hà (Vũ Hoàng Dung), a notorious gangster who used to monopolize gambling sites, adopt a masculine appearance, and openly date women. Together with illegal activities, her sexuality was the subject of discussion and ridicule in the public eye. She was shot point-blank by her rival in the year 2000; the assassination shook Vietnam's underworld.
A fictional rendezvous between the long-gone Dung Hà and her old flame, rumored to be her one true love, plays out along the 2000s pop ballad Đêm Nay Anh Mơ Về Em (“Dreaming of You Tonight”). Adopting the aesthetic of music videos from this era, the work centers lesbian longing and butch/transmasculine expressions against the backdrop of heteronormative pop culture.
The remade music video is installed between two crystal cubes engraved with images of Vietnam's first-ever casino and Dung Hà's final resting place: two castles, remnants of empires long faded.
Open studio at Manzi Art Space, 2024
Exhibition at Dogma Collection, 2025