The Other City

BackgroundMotorbike travel is central to the experience of Ho Chi Minh City. It is more than a mode of transport; it is a fundamental part of the city's pulse, shaping how people interact with their environment. Typically, a passenger on a motorbike looks forward, their gaze framed by the edges of the driver’s helmet. The Other City shifts focus to an alternative view: the peripheral vision, the overlooked side glances that capture fleeting yet telling moments of urban life. This embodied filmmaking process aligns with my practice led research methodology, that has been developed through the river cities project. The film ‘Dust and Metal’ by Ester Johnson celebrates the motorbike as having liberated rural communities and women in particular, and in doing so reveals the importance of the motorbike in the culture of Vietnam.ContributionThis film foregrounds the peripheral view, positioning it as the central subject of exploration. In doing so, it acknowledges the ephemeral and often intangible qualities that define urban experience. Filming HCMC in this way, establishes an important set of relations that are formed through the unique temporal and spatial relationship between the motorbike and the city spaces. On a motorbike you are exposed to the shifting qualities of space, in the city, and you become part of the atmospheric experience. This film uses post-production as a tool to reveal the experiential in the sequences, revealing a sensory experience for the audience.SignificanceThis film, emerged through a project that is looking at the Te canal as a lens to explore different sensorial properties of the HCMC. By filming a motorbike journey over the canal and around the neighborhood, this film contributes to a body of knowledge on the this part of the city. Through the process of post-production the films reframe the peripheral vision as a primary mode of understanding the city, and builds on the ephemeral and intangible as important mediums of understanding the city.