
Mai Huyền Chi
Directing
Biography
Mai Huyền Chi, better known as Chi Mai, is a Vietnamese writer-director whose work spans fiction and documentary films, publishing, and community-rooted arts. Through her work, Chi explores how cinema can be a place of care, and a site of reclamation, where ecology, history, and identity intertwine.
Known For

A young, ambitious woman working in a man's world needs a partner who would tidy and organize her life. Unexpectedly, a stranger at the park may be the perfect man for her.
My Mr. Wife

It begins with a chaotic rush of teen hormones when white middle-class teenager Leah gets together with Benji who is black and poor. Leah begins taping Benji and posting these videos of his life revealing his intriguing mix of charisma and shyness – but when this proves boring to audiences, the two of them embark down a path that becomes increasingly violent, ominous and eventually spirals out of control.
A Brixton Tale

When a burglary takes an awkward turn, a young thief encounters an old man seeking a fatal reunion with his wife. Following the perspective of the thief, we witness his journey of emotions: from getting caught up in an absurd situation to growing a kin-like bond to the old man before fulfilling his final wish. Through this implausible journey, love unfolds with genuine simplicity and a bittersweet ending.
Bury Us in a Lone Desert

The documentary, Vietnam: 50 Years of Forgetting, follows Vietnamese filmmaker Mai Huyen Chi as she sets out to trace the life and death of her grandfather, a war hero lost to history. What begins as a personal journey soon becomes a meditation on the burden of memory, the silence of survivors, and the complex legacies of war. As she travels across Vietnam, collecting testimonies and fragments of remembrance, Chi is confronted with what has been left unspoken - in her family and in the fabric of a nation still shaped by conflict. The film explores what it means to inherit a war you did not live through, and what is remembered when so much has been forgotten.
Vietnam: 50 Years of Forgetting

Suong, a young girl from rural Vietnam, migrates to the bustling city of Ho Chi Minh City to work in a local eatery with two other migrant workers. Within the caging, barren walls of the eatery, their days are filled with repetitive tasks and with vacuous, tedious hours. However, behind her veil of apathy, Suong battles a dilemma that she soon has to face with her family.
The Girl From Dak Lak

In this existential vignette on urban migration, a mother watches her son’s funeral through a phone while a gravedigger and paid mourner discuss moving to the city.
Elephants by the Roadside

Untold stories of women fighting in Vietnam. Examines intergenerational trauma, hope, validating female resilience. Through reconciliation narratives, redefines love as humanity's aim: healing and acceptance.
Woman I Woman

Stateless boat women drift through life without a sense of belonging, until one of them dares to dream, breaks the cycle, and begins a quiet fight for survival.