Events for the Public
April 2009
In April-May 2009, the AC is closed on April 30 (Vietnam's Victory Day), May 1 (International Labor Day), May 2, and May 25 (American Memorial Day).
All of the below events are open for the public. Please click here to register for event(s) you want to attend. We would like you to plan carefully before registering with us so that we have enough seats for participants. If you register for our events but change your plan, kindly notify us by email to irchanoi@gmail.com.
If you would like to be an American Center member, please register.
Our office is located on the 1st Floor of the Rose Garden Tower at 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi. You can leave your vehicle at VKO Supermarket's vehicle keeping area. Remember to take your ID with you.
Time: 14:00-16:30, April 3, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
from Amazon.com
Woody Allen makes beautiful music but only fitful comedy with his story of "the second greatest guitar player in the world." Sean Penn plays Emmett Ray, an irresponsible, womanizing swing guitar player in Depression-era America who is guided by an ego almost as large as his talent. "I'm an artist, a truly great artist," he proclaims time and time again, and when he plays, soaring into a blissed-out world of pure melodic beauty, he proves it. Samantha Morton almost steals the film as his mute girlfriend Hattie, a sweet Chaplinesque waif who loves him unconditionally, and Uma Thurman brings haughty moxie to her role as a slumming socialite and aspiring writer who's forever analyzing Emmett's peculiarities (like taking his dates to shoot rats at the city dump). The vignettelike tales are interspersed with comments by jazz aficionados and critics, but this is less a Zelig-like mockumentary than an extension of the self-absorbed portraits of Deconstructing Harry and Celebrity. The lazy pace drags at times and the script runs dry between comic centerpieces--the film screams for more of Allen's playful invention--but there's a bittersweet tenderness and an affecting vulnerability that is missing from his other recent work. Shot by Zhao Fei (The Emperor and the Assassin, Raise the Red Lantern), it's one of Allen's most gorgeous and colorful films in years, buoyed by toe-tapping music and Penn's gruffly charming performance. --Sean Axmaker
Time: 14:00-16:00, April 10, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
Please come join our speaker program on "Baseball Lesson as a Lesson of Life", which concerns about the relationship between baseball, the most popular sport in a Southern State of the U.S., and its impact on daily life. Speakers are Dr. Bui Phuong Lan and Mr. Phil Rognier, MA. Dr. Lan is an expert in social fields. She is the Director of the Center for Research on the US, Vietnam's Institude for American Studies. She is also the Dean of International Studies Faculty. Mr. Rognier is the executive director of FirstWing Foundation. He has the MA History. He has taught baseball in many different countries at different levels: college, high school, professional. Time: 17:00-18:30, April 10, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, please join vocalist Courtney McLain and guitarist Donald Mattingley for an afternoon of live jazz music at the American Center. Courtney and Donald will be performing a mix of famous jazz standards and more modern jazz-influenced pop music. In addition to the performance, there will also be a discussion about the various songs performed, their composers, and their place in the history of jazz.
Time: 16:00-18:00, April 15, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
This workshop will explore the characteristics of successful presentations. Participants will review effective methods for preparation, appropriate organization, and effective language for presentations. Participants will have opportunities for active participation and will critique a videotaped presentation.
Time: 14:00-16:30, April 17, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
from mazon.com
A phenomenal hit when it was released in 1989, Field of Dreams has become a modern classic and a uniquely American slice of cinema. It functions effectively as a moving drama about the power of dreams, a fantasy ode to our national pastime, and a brilliant adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's exquisite baseball novel Shoeless Joe. Kinsella himself found the film a delightful surprise, differing greatly from his novel but benefiting from its own creative variations. It is the film that cemented Kevin Costner's status as an all-American screen star, but the story resonates far beyond Costner's handsome appeal. As just about everyone knows by now, Costner stars as Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words "If you build it, he will come," and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his cornfield. His wife (Amy Madigan) supports the wild idea, but a reclusive novelist (modeled after J.D. Salinger and played by James Earl Jones) is not so easily persuaded. The idealistic farmer is either a visionary or a deluded fool, but his persistence is rewarded when spirits from baseball's past begin appearing on the ball field. Past and present intermingle in the person of "Moonlight Graham" (superbly played by Burt Lancaster), an unknown player who sacrificed his dreams of baseball glory for a dignified life as a small-town physician ... but what all of this means is unclear until the film's memorably heartfelt conclusion. A meditation on family, memory, and faith, the film balances humor and magic to strike just the right chord of thoughtful emotion, affecting audiences so deeply that the baseball field created for the production has now become a mecca of sorts for dreamers around the world. --Jeff Shannon
Time: 13:00-14:10, April 18, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
Ten Steps to College with Greenes is designed to help students find and get into the college that is right for them. Come join the film showing and our discussion with an interested group of students.
Time: 15:00-17:00, April 23, 2009
Venue: 1st Floor, Rose Garden Tower, 170 Ngoc Khanh Street, Hanoi
This workshop will introduce participants of news ways of finding Internet information when doing research (seeking information), as well as tapping into many free libraries (e-books, e-stats, e-articles) on the Internet.
US-Vietnam Relations
Events for the Public
