Diva
Diva is a fan letter to Diva Cat Thy, a Vietnamese trans woman, street food vendor, and performer, who openly shares her life and struggles daily on social media. Trying to bridge distances of both geography and language, the co-filmmakers use found footage posted online by Diva and her community to establish a connection. Whilst the French director was unable to travel to Vietnam due to COVID-19 restrictions, the project was realised through Dustin Duong, an Australian of Vietnamese origins, who translates the footage and serves as the essential creative lead and intermediary. In a conversation constructed through subtitles and surtitles, the film reveals the duo's adoration for Diva and their shared process of making meaning of Diva’s life as well as their own in relation to it. Diva’s life—on the streets of Saigon as a transitory street food vendor, online as a social media celebrity, and on stage as a bingo singer and circus performer—is interwoven with Dustin’s act of translation and the co-filmmakers’ reflection on queer identity, distance, and intimacy. Diva is a fleeting moment in a woman’s life, one that reaches out to a wider queer and solidarity community, blurring the spheres of the online and the real.