local color

Local Color documents the everyday rhythm of life for those who live, work, visit, and play in Hanoi. Once identified as the central city of America’s most elusive foe during the Cold War, the film asks what becomes of the red that once compelled the Western world to its knees, where does it fade, what hues replace it, and who will carry responsibility into the future? An observational documentary that probes the boundaries of its own form, Local Color begins with a Vietnam War relic and expands to examine how images, propaganda, and a local scene are constructed. It is a film about labor and leisure, about the past, the present, and the future—and about a city and its people. Local Color is a meditation on Hanoi, Vietnam.