Documentary short film streaming on Tenk1 about loudspeakers in Hanoi that authorities insist on keeping in place for announcements like "all dogs need to be vaccinated, come tomorrow between 7am and 11am" while locals find them too noisy and vandalize them (but they seem to not have anything against the idea of loudspeaker announcements itself). Authorities send technicians to repair them, and the cycle goes on.

I remember town loudspeakers in Southeast Asia, though I'm not sure I recall having heard them in Hanoi (also not sure if I stayed in the Thanh Công neighborhood). To me the concept is anachronistic somehow, like a remnant of the communist era. But that's probably just habit: where over here authorities mostly send letters or put up posters, others use loudspeakers (or do loudspeakers in Hanoi just complement the letter sending and poster pasting?). Also a note that this is from 2004: things might have changed (and probably have, seeing how fast things change in Vietnam).

I liked it because it brought back memories of the wonderfully chaotic Hanoi streets, with wild scooter traffic (and some bicycles back in 2004, not a thing anymore when I was there in 2017), street vendors (a lady in the short picks up a rogue, live small crag that escaped from her basket to put it back on sale), a dizzying net of electricity and phone cables, and really, really good street food.

The short also streams on Vimeo.

Footnotes

  1. a documentary streaming platform that we get access to via our public library card. They managed to spell the documentary's name wrong, though.