Since the mid-1960s, community groups have been empowered to participate in anthropological research. This same movement also took place in ethnological filmmaking. Roles of filmmakers have been shifting from making single-authored films to collaboratively created films and later on to subject-generated films that are also termed community-based films, indigenous directed films or informant-made films. In Vietnam, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology (VME) was the first museum that approached this new way of making films. Beginning in 2006, VME staff were trained in the process of making community-based films and since then, this method of making films has been applied in a number of projects. By looking at this process, the author points out that VME gained initial success by developing this type of film, which then greatly impacted the work of other national museums and prestigious research institutes in Vietnam. This fact also manifests the democratisation process within the context of active changes in Vietnam’s society.
