Before I Close My Eyes

Overview

This video focuses on three contemporary Vietnamese men, dressed in Vietnam War-era uniforms, as they watch a recording of the historic televised suicide of Hòa thượng Thích Quảng Đức, the Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk who burned himself to death at a busy Saigon intersection on June 11, 1963, an act of protest that shocked the world and ultimately led to the demise of the American-supported Diem regime. The video is structured, shot for shot, after the pivotal mental breakdown scene in Ingmar Bergman’s 1966 film PERSONA.