A family letter carries memories, longing, and unspoken emotions, creating a dialogue on a deeper emotional level. A Letter to A’ma is a documentary spanning over a decade. Using director Hui-ling Chen’s letters to her grandmother as a starting point, it traces the trajectory of family life and the ruptures in Taiwan’s national history, interweaving personal memories with collective identity. The film captures the director and the younger generation assembling a “collective portrait,” connecting migration stories of diverse communities to construct a mosaic of the island’s collective imagery and memories.

This screening event will feature an online discussion with the director, who will share the stories behind the creation of the film and explore how art can serve as a bridge for memory and identity, fostering shared experiences of the era. Regardless of one’s location or connection to Formosa, this documentary invites us to reconsider the links between family and history, evoking profound reflections on kinship, identity, and familial memories.

• Date & Time: Saturday, 11 January 2025, 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM
• Venue: K2.31 (Nash Lecture Theatre), King’s Building, London WC2R 2LS
• Registration Fee: £7 per person (to cover film licensing costs)
• The venue is access-controlled, so please arrive on time and register via the link below (registration closes at 9 PM the night before the event): https://tickets.formosasalon.org.uk/2024-gma/

Film Synopsis:

How can an island forgotten by the world and steeped in amnesia rebuild its identity through artistic expression in a post-colonial era?

The filmmaker, Hui-ling Chen, returns from abroad to her homeland to mourn her late grandmother. Confronting the blurred memories of her family, she also becomes acutely aware of the ruptures in Taiwan’s national history—a land shaped by 400 years of colonial rule and nearly half a century of authoritarianism. Hui-ling Chen invites young individuals to create works based on family memories, documenting their long journey of self-discovery. Concurrently, she collaborates with various schools, initiating an art project for students: interviewing their grandparents and painting their portraits. This becomes a decade-long performance art piece, a mosaic of “collective portraits” centred on Taiwan’s collective memory.

In the classroom, we witness Taiwan’s younger generations vividly recounting the migration stories of diverse communities, all converging on this island. Through the process of listening to one another, fragments of memory—often disparate or conflicting—are pieced together to form an expansive collective portrait.

Like a whale of freedom surfacing through the mist: a pair of piercing eyes, a single face, countless faces, our faces…

Trailer：

Awards：

• Nominated for Best Documentary at the 2021 Golden Horse Awards
• Taiwan Competition Gold Award at the 2021 Taiwan International Women’s Film Festival
• Best Documentary and Best Original Film Score at the 2021 Les Rimbaud du Cinéma Festival, France
• Best Documentary, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Film Score at the 2021 The SMR13 International Independent Film Festival, France

Director’s Biography:

Hui-ling Chen was once a secondary school art teacher before leaving her teaching position to study film in France. After completing her studies, she returned to Taiwan to initiate the Island’s Collective Memory Project, using the documentary A Letter to My Grandma as the foundation. She collaborated with schools across the country, guiding young people to interpret family stories through painting and inviting students to participate in collective creation. Through this long-term performance art, Hui-ling collected portraits from communities nationwide, building a collective portrait of the island’s era. Ultimately, she used the film A Letter to My Grandma to document the results of this decade-long practice. In 2018, she was awarded the Ministry of Education’s 5th Art Education Contribution Award.

Director’s Statement:

I firmly believe that art can resist forgetfulness, that reflection can challenge authoritarianism, and that education can inspire future generations. Through filmmaking, I hope to spark a conversation, guiding the younger generation to construct their own memories. I want Taiwan’s youth to not only become people with stories but also individuals with faith.

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• Contacts：Grace、Joe
• Banner：Sara

• 電影放映
• 跨海連線