Water Poem
[ WORKING TITLE ]
Short Film | Experimental/Documentary
2026
Currently finalizing post-production.
Water Poem (working title) is an experimental documentary short film in which a Vietnamese trans man recites a poem as images drift and shift beneath words, in an exploration of water against boundaries of time.
A meditation on transness, ancestral memory, and grief on the body that carries the way a river carries sediment.
In the summer of 2022, Vietnamese trans director Trâm Anh Nguyễn returned to Vietnam and made Hoa (short documentary), a poetic letter to his bà nội (paternal grandmother), Tuyết Hoa, whose memory was slowly fading.
A year after Hoa was released, his bà nội passed away. Parts of her ashes were returned to Sông Hương (Perfume River) in Huế, the city where she was born.
Returning as dissolution and as another form of becoming, by way of un-becoming. Water forms and unforms in constant transitioning.
Water Poem begins where Hoa left off. Reminiscing on Trâm Anh's return to Vietnam being a trans person, his journey of healing back toward body and land mirrors his grandmother's return to the waters of her hometown.
Against the backdrop of recent intensifying typhoons and floods devastating Central Vietnam, the personal and the collective converge. The grief of a loved one and the grief of a landscape and homeland interweave.
Water is the channel through which grief, memory, and hope are carried across and beyond time and generations, never quite settling or sinking.
Like water, the body may be a river, a current, or an ocean — vessels of shifting form carrying memory, grief, and desires to persist across time.
Select Festivals
Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival, 2026
credits __
director
writer
producer
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
director of photography
JOY XING
starring
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
TRẦN THỊ TUYẾT HOA
picture edit
colour grade
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
sound design/mix
LUKE DONOVAN
sound edit
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
sound recording
CHANTAL DUYÊN LÊ
CAO LÊ HOÀNG
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
musical composition
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
vocal narration
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
musical advisor
CAO LÊ HOÀNG
production design
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
mixed media animation
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
props support
CHANTAL DUYÊN LÊ
graphic design & titles
storyboard
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
photography
JOY XING
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
NGUYỄN PHÚC BẢO MINH
additional footage
16mm film loader
TRÂM ANH NGUYỄN
lighting assistant
CHANTAL DUYÊN LÊ
translation editor
HẢI ANH TÔN
CAO LÊ HOÀNG
production assistance
HẢI ANH TÔN
SHARON SUN
location support
HẢI ANH TÔN
JOY XING
Made possible with the support of
Liaison for Independent Filmmakers in Toronto (LIFT)
Workman Arts
Rendez Vous With Madness Festival
16mm footage shot on
Kodak VISION3 250D Color Negative Film #7207
using
Non-Reflex Bolex with Underwater Housing
Developed & scanned by Frame Discreet
Digital footage shot on Canon EOS R6
in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
August - September, 2026
Additional footage shot on Fujifilm X-T2
in Huế, Việt Nam (2019),
The Hague, Netherlands (2026),
& Montréal, Québec (2022)
Special thanks to
Robin Riad
Gulzar
Janet-Rose Nguyễn
Pio Monti
Tâm Đỗ
Lucia Fella Pellegrino
cát nguyên
IYAM 2026 Cohort
Nguyễn Hữu Thái
Teresa Van
Minh Tâm Huỳnh
Nguyễn Hữu Thái Hoà
Trần Ngô Thiên Lý
Inspired by the great artists & filmmakers who have paved the way before & around me:
Trịnh T. Minh Hà
Ana Mendieta
Apichatpong Weeresethakul
Trần Văn Thuỷ
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Kelsey Lu
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Ana Roxanne
& deeply influenced by the writings of:
Natalie Diaz
Malidoma Patrice Somé
Toni Morrison
Mahmoud Darwish
Etel Adnan
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Dionne Brand
Rita Wong
James Baldwin
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Ursula K. Le Guin
& thank you always to the moon, the waters,
our ancestors from the past & future.
Created as part of the “If You Ask Me” program by LIFT x Workman Arts in Toronto, Canada.
“If You Ask Me (IYAM)” has supported emerging filmmakers with lived mental health and/or addiction experiences to create new short films. The program features shorts by filmmakers from across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). These new films were developed from July to September 2026 under the guidance of Robin Riad, with IYAM alumnus Gulzar serving as mentor.