Five years ago, Singaporean furniture salesman Ricky Yeow, then 38, went to Ho Chi Minh City in search of a wife.

He was one of thousands who go to Vietnam every year from Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and the West for this purpose.

But in his case, Singaporean documentary-maker Mirabelle Ang, 32, went along to capture the events. In five days, he had chosen and married 19-year-old Nguyen Thi Nhanh from the village of Dong Thap, four hours west of Ho Chi Minh.

A 48-minute account of that venture, Match Made, will screen at independent cinema Sinema Old School at Mount Sophia from next month.

Ang's documentary was screened at the Singapore International Film Festival in 2007 and at festivals in Vienna, San Francisco, Budapest and Vietnam.

Sinema Old School programming manager Inez Maria says the theme of matchmaking was selected for next month's screenings because with increased globalisation, there is a need to 'understand what makes First World citizens seek soulmates in Third World countries'.

Sinema came into existence in late 2007 and missed the chance to screen the film earlier, she adds.

'Even though we are a platform to screen local independent films, we do need time to research quality films and it took us a while to find a film as good as this,' she says.

Ang, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic graduate, says she first got the idea to film the bride-hunt after reading in The Straits Times in 2002 about a matchmaking agency run by businessman Mark Lin.

She spoke to Life! by e-mail and telephone from Los Angeles, where she is now working as a documentary editor.

She says: 'The article had a photo of a Chinese man with his docile wife, standing in the background in her pyjamas, smiling. I saw a larger issue behind the story and knew that I had to make a documentary about it.'

The then graduate student of the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) approached Mr Lin, who asked one of his clients, Mr Yeow, if he would take part.

Ang says: 'Ricky was very kind to agree to participate in the film. �I told him I was a graduate student and that I was interested in learning about the matchmaking process and would like to follow him while he was in Vietnam. He agreed.'

People who saw the film when it screened in Singapore two years ago said the rapid and business-like bride interviewing process was an eye-opener.

Says Ang: 'After we arrived, we were driven to our hotel and told to meet in 20 minutes at the lobby to drive to another location where Ricky would meet the girls.

'Two hours later, we were crammed into a dingy hotel room and everything unfolded before us. It all happened very quickly.'

To make the film, her first feature documentary, Ang travelled to Vietnam with Ms Susan Kim, who was a fellow graduate student at the film/video programme at CalArts. Another CalArts graduate, Mr Tuan Nguyen, a Vietnamese-American, helped with translation.

The self-funded project cost about $10,000 to make.

Ang, who graduated from CalArts with a master's in film and video in 2006, says one of the hardest parts of the job was the language barrier.

'I wanted to speak to the Vietnamese girls, who were mostly, if not all, younger than me. I wanted to hear their story, away from the watchful eyes of the men and women 'taking care' of them while they were in Ho Chi Minh waiting to be matched with potential grooms.'

The documentary includes an interview with Ms Nguyen in her home village and one with Mr Yeow in his four-room HDB flat in Singapore, where he is the oldest son living with ageing parents.

Ang hopes the film will 'provoke questions' from the audience about what people will do to obtain a better life and how economic imbalances between countries affect lives.

In such arrangements, the Singapore matchmaking agency is usually paid $8,000 or more, while the bride's family receives a token amount. The bride hopes to get a husband who will provide her with a better life than the one she would get in her home country.

Ang says Mr Yeow has since refused to speak to her, for reasons which can be gleaned from watching the film, she says.

'There's a very delicate line between being a documentary film-maker, and being human and a witness to events. As documentary film-makers, we are constantly negotiating between that fine line,' she says.

Match Made is on at Sinema Old School, 11B Mount Sophia, from next Thursday. It will be paired with Buy Me Love, a 15-minute fictional short film about a lonely hawker and his matchmade wife, from director Ric Aw. There will be a panel discussion featuring, among others, Aw and Mr Jason Ho, owner of a matchmaking agency. Details at sinema.sg or call 6336-9707.

This article was first published in The Business Times