Mai Huyền Chi

Biography

Mai Huyền Chi is a Vietnamese writer-director whose films explore memory, displacement, and belonging. Her work blends documentary and fiction, often developed through long-term collaborations with marginalized communities. Her debut short Down the Stream (2015) was a Vimeo Best of the Year finalist. She co-directed the feature The Girl From Dak Lak (2022), which premiered at IndieLisboa. Her debut short fiction The River Runs Still (2024) screened at the New York Asian Film Festival. Her latest work includes the Al Jazeera-commissioned documentary 50 Years of Forgetting (2025) and the anthology book project On Forgetting. She is developing her fiction debut, The River Knows Our Names, winner of the 2024 Talents Tokyo Award and Next Masters' Support. She's the founder of Cinema CNN (Cinema of Peasants), a grassroots film initiative dedicated to promoting independent filmmakers from Central Vietnam, and co-founder of Gai Te Residency, Vietnam's first residency program for FLINTA filmmakers.