62 YEARS AND 6500 MILES BETWEEN

World Premiere

USA 2005 | 52mins | 16mm Color | English, Mandarin & Taiwanese w/E.S.

In Person: Director Anita Chang

Asking her grandmother what advice she has for young people, filmmaker Anita Chang receives a simple reply: "Politics!" Despite a third stroke and a century of struggle, "Democratic Grandma" remains true to the ideals that earned her acclaim and a memorable nickname in Taiwan. However, she also knows that progress exacts a price—a realization rendered vividly and with poignant candor in Chang's portrait of her headstrong amah. Tracing the parallel threads of her female relatives' stories, Chang (SHE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU, SFIAAFF '02) uncovers revelations of political persecution while focusing on the struggle to maintain—and sometimes resist—the bonds of filial traditions. A mesmerizing and provocative meditation on history-making and the post-colonial condition, this dynamic documentary intimately depicts what it means to be a part of a family, a nation, and a world in constant upheaval.

Preceded by:

PLANE MAKER

Taiwan 2004 | 11mins | Video Color | Mandarin w/E.S.
DIRECTOR: Yen-ni Wang
The history of aviation, in origami.

THUNDER LANNYANG

Taiwan/USA 2004 | 15mins | Video Color | Taiwanese & Mandarin w/E.S.
DIRECTOR: Yu-ting Hsueh
A portrait of a musician who revived Taiwanese opera.

—Michael Wilson