Hanoi Eclipse: The Music of Dai Lam Linh, directed by Barley Norton

Synopsis: The documentary follows the challenges faced by the controversial Vietnamese band Dai Lam Linh. With vivid footage of the band working in the city of Hanoi, the film documents the recording of Dai Lam Linh’s debut album in 2009 and features an album-launch concert in the prestigious Hanoi Opera House. Followed by scandal at every turn for their experimental sound and their use of sexually explicit lyrics, the band have dared to flout taboos and fight for their creative freedom. Dai Lam Linh’s story of creative, political and financial struggle reveals what it is like to be a contemporary musician in a one-party state where cultural expression is tightly controlled.

Film website link: https://store.der.org/hanoi-eclipse-p776.aspx; Film preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY_toFMu0-c

Director biography: Barley Norton is an ethnomusicologist and filmmaker, and Professor of Music at Goldsmiths, University of London. His audiovisual work includes the films Hanoi Eclipse - The Music of Dai Lam Linh (Documentary Educational Resources 2010) and Make a Silence - Musical Dialogues in Asia (Journal of Anthropological Film 2020), and some short ‘video stories’, published online as part of a multimedia book Heritage of Future Past - Story Collection (British Council 2020). He is also co-edited 'Musicology on Screen' (2022), a special issue of Screenworks – The Journal of Practice Research in Film and Screen Media.