The Priestess Walks Alone
Hui-chen Huang
Anu is a tomboy. Although, as was conventional in Taiwan of the 1970s, she married young and had two children, she soon separated from her violent husband and raised the daughters alone. Since then, she has only had relationships with women. She earns her living with her own team of professional mourners at funerals.
This is the setting in which her daughter, the film-maker Hui-chen Huang, grew up. Any doubts about the unconditional nature of a mother’s love are taboo in Chinese culture. But Huang makes this very topic the subject of this intimate portrait. She confronts Anu with questions that have plagued her for years. Using long shots, this film addresses areas such as trust, abuse and complicity, but in almost all cases they lead to a painful speechlessness. The confrontation culminates in a situation at the dining table, where all the family secrets are laid out on the table – in the truest sense of the phrase.
Presented by Landesarbeitesgemeinschaft Lesben in NRW
Film series Internal Migration
Hui-chen Huang
Die 1978 in Taiwan geborene Hui-chen Huang begann im Alter von sechs Jahren, mit ihrer Mutter bei taoistischen Bestattungen mitzuarbeiten. In der dritten Klasse musste sie aus finanziellen Gründen die Schule verlassen; Lesen und Schreiben lernte sie aus Comics und aus dem Fernsehen. Seit sie zwanzig ist, setzt sie sich als Aktivistin für Arbeiterorganisationen und Gewerkschaften ein, u. a. mit Dokumentarfilmen über die Nöte von taiwanesischen und migrantischen Arbeiter*innen, die weltweit auf zahlreichen Festivals gezeigt wurden.
Filme von Hui-chen Huang
Small Talk 2016 | Uchan Is Going Home 2009 | Hospital Wing 8 East 2006
