Hải Ninh
Hải Ninh (1931–2013) was a prominent Vietnamese film director and one of the pioneers of modern Vietnamese cinema. Born Nguyễn Hải Ninh on December 31, 1931, in Hoằng Hóa, Thanh Hóa, he came from a poor family and lost his parents at a young age. He joined the military as a teenager before entering the developing Vietnamese film industry. Hải Ninh began his film career in 1956 and was among the first students of Vietnam’s film-directing program. He became particularly well known for films depicting the experiences of Vietnamese people during wartime, including 17th Parallel: Days and Nights (1972) and The Little Girl of Hanoi (1974). His other notable films include The Young Soldier, First Love, The City at Dawn, Motherland, and Long Tri Festival Night. Hải Ninh received numerous national and international awards. He was named a People’s Artist in 1984 and received Vietnam’s prestigious Ho Chi Minh Prize for Literature and Arts in 2007 for a group of his major films. He also served as director of the Vietnam Feature Film Studio from 1984 to 1994. He died in Hanoi on February 5, 2013, aged 81. He was one of the foundational figures of Vietnamese revolutionary cinema, with films that became important records of Vietnam’s wartime history and culture.