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Clip description
Trang (Deborah Le) helps in the garment factory and watches as her mother Trieu (Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hien), Uncle Le (Hieu Phan), Yen (My Lingh Thi Nguyen) and Linh (Suong Tran) work and chat. Trang also helps look after baby Phuong (Kimm Ann Nguyen).
Curator’s notes
Producer Liz Watts says the Delivery Day team wanted to show the garment factory as a place of family interaction rather than stereotyped scenes of overworked, underpaid immigrants. Delivery Day develops a portrait of this world detail by detail, focusing on what Trang sees and hears.
According to Watts, designer Melinda Doring emphasised 'iconic’ Vietnamese and Sydney-Vietnamese colours, like mauves and greens, in the environment and through the fabrics in the factory. Robert Humphreys’ cinematography emphasises Trang’s eye level. Humphreys, director Jane Manning and editor Martin Connors also favour more close-up shots of Trang than the other characters. Doring and Humphreys have worked together on Flowergirl (1999) and Somersault (2004) for Cate Shortland, and Jewboy (2005), produced by Watts.
Although Trang is silent in this sequence, other characters’ dialogue is observed from her perspective, giving it a different impact. The women’s conversation reveals something of what is valued in the community and what they expect of their children: for Trang it takes on an ironic note, given she has had to stay home from school to help out.
