Hanoi, in the Japan­ese indus­tri­al zone: two young women who have left their vil­lage strug­gle to escape tem­po­rary work and short-term con­tracts. Becom­ing a real worker is a dream, which should be a source of pride and a guar­an­tee of dignity.

Thao Tran Thi Phuong, born in 1977 in Viet­nam, Tran Phuong Thao ini­tial­ly stud­ied for­eign trade and inter­pre­ta­tion in Hanoi. In 2002, she moved to France to fulfil her dream of becom­ing a doc­u­men­tary film­mak­er. After grad­u­at­ed in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence in Paris, she stud­ied doc­u­men­tary film tech­nics and writ­ing in Poitiers Uni­ver­si­ty. Back in Viet­nam, she joined dif­fer­ent Varan Viet­nam work­shops since 2005 as trans­la­tor, trainee, then tutor. WORKERS’ DREAMS attend­ed many inter­na­tion­al fes­ti­vals and was award­ed at the Cinema du Reel 2007. Since 2011, she has direct­ed sev­er­al doc­u­men­tary projects in col­lab­o­ra­tion Swann Dubus includ­ing WITH OR WITHOUT ME - White Goose Award at DMZ Docs 2012 and FINDING PHONG - Grand Prix Nanook- Jean Rouch at 34th Inter­na­tion­al Fes­ti­val Jean Rouch 2015. Their work exam­ines the human dimen­sions of the grand themes in Viet­nam’s rapid­ly chang­ing society.