Who Holds the Thread: A Screening and Conversation

The two-channel documentary at the centre of Weaving a Day, Mourning a Life was produced through extended fieldwork in Phúc Sen, a village the curator did not visit himself. This screening presents the documentary as a standalone work before opening the floor to a structured conversation about the ethical questions embedded in that distance.

Who has the right to document a living tradition? What is lost and what is preserved in the act of filming? How do communities retain agency over their own cultural narratives when outside practitioners enter?

The program invites a facilitator whose work engages documentary practice or intangible cultural heritage, not necessarily Vietnamese, because these questions are not specific to one culture. Following the screening, the facilitator and curator will discuss the decisions made during production, the relationship between the production team and the Nùng An community, and what it means to bring this material to a gallery in New York. Audience questions are welcomed throughout.

The conversation is intended to sit inside the discomfort the exhibition already creates, rather than resolve it.

Bio: Betty Yu is an award-winning multimedia artist, filmmaker, photographer, and activist born and raised in NYC. Her socially engaged practice explores labor, immigration, gentrification, abolition, racism, and other issues through documentary film, installation, new media, and community-based approaches. She is a co-founder of Chinatown Art Brigade, a cultural collective advancing anti-displacement struggles. Her work has been exhibited and screened at institutions including the Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, British Museum, and International Center of Photography. She currently serves as Deputy Director of Hunter College’s MFA Integrated Media Arts Program, where she teaches emerging media and social practice.

Image Caption: Chu Thieu and Minh Sang Chu, Parallel Looms (Song Hành), 2026. Film still. Two-channel video, Vietnamese with English subtitles, 3:28 min each. Courtesy of the artists.