Hanoi

Fiction or Reality – The scream at Long Bien Bridge

This series discusses the interplay between documentary and fiction in storytelling, drawing on quotes from Jean Luc Godard, a key figure in the French New Wave :

 “All great fiction films tend toward documentary, just as all great documentaries tend toward fiction . . . One who opts for one necessarily finds the other at the end of his journey.” “A story should have a beginning, a middle, and an end… but not necessarily in that order.”

It highlights that effective narratives often combine elements of both genres,

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Album Vintage – Long Bien Bridge (Pont Paul Doumer) in 1995

“The bridge was built in 1899–1902 by the architects Daydé & Pillé of Paris, and opened in 1903. Before North Vietnam’s independence in 1954, it was called Paul-Doumer Bridge, named after Paul Doumer – the governor-general of French Indochina and then French president. At 2.4 kilometres in length,it was, at that time, one of the longest bridges in Asia.

Some parts of the original structure remain intact, while large sections have been built later to repair the holes.

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1954 The Great Migration to the South of Vietnam – Operation Passage to Freedom

Migration and the Geneva Accords

After the 1954 Geneva Accords divided Vietnam into North and South, there was a 300-day period (ending on May 18, 1955) during which Vietnamese people could freely choose their place of residence.

A massive migration occurred, with approximately 1 million people moving from the north to the south and around 50,000 people moving from the south to the north.

The unexpected migration prompted the North Vietnamese government to block roads,

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