World Premiere
In this engrossing documentary, director Jennifer Chiu reaches into her family’s history to explore the Hakka — a people, a language, and a culture. Thought to hail from the north of China, the Hakka settled in the south of the country, where they were known as the “guest people”. In the face of social marginalization, many of them dispersed to places such as Mauritius, India, Jamaica, and Canada — including BC’s Lower Mainland, where Chiu spent much of her childhood.
The director’s reach is as expansive as her peoples’ migratory spread: Using found Super 8 footage, she explores the Hakka’s history in India, and through candid, probing interviews with relatives and community leaders she brings forth decades of a narrative that has been obscured for far too long. Chiu has made a warm, congenial film that is never weighed down by its explorations of family secrecy, the costs of assimilation, and the very uncertain future of Hakka culture.
Oct 6 & 9: Q&A
Presented by
Supported by
Media Partner
Community Partner
Canada
2025
In English, Hakka and Bengali with English subtitles
At VIFF Centre
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Mel D’Souza, Jennifer Chiu
Producer
Jennifer Chiu
Screenwriter
Jennifer Chiu, Aynsley Baldwin
Cinematography
Antonia Ramirez
Editor
Aynsley Baldwin
Original Music
Scott Gailey, Oscar Vargas
Jennifer Chiu
Jennifer Chiu is an award-winning writer, director, producer, and documentary researcher living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her films have screened at festivals around the world including DOK Leipzig, Edinburgh Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, Mill Valley Film Festival, and the Vancouver International Film Festival. She recently completed her first feature documentary, Clan of the Painted Lady.
Filmography: Cabbie (2015); Memory of the Peace (2018)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Vivaldi and Me
Venice, 1716. Composer Antonio Vivaldi teaches at an orphanage for abandoned girls, and establishes a deep rapport with violinist Cecelia — but their collaboration is threatened by her impending arranged marriage.
Rear Window
James Stewart is the man who sees too much. "Jeff" Jeffries is a sports photographer waylaid by a broken leg, doomed to spend the summer in a wheelchair in his New York apartment. That's how he comes to witness a murder in the dead of night (or does he?).
Rose of Nevada
This disconcerting film from the director of Bait and Enys Men feels like a message from another era: two men sign on to a Cornish fishing trawler, but when they return to port they are welcomed into the community 30 years before they left...
To Die For
Buck Henry (The Graduate) wrote this acidic black comedy about a ruthless weather girl on the make (Nicole Kidman in her breakout role). A young Joaquin Phoenix is the dim teen she seduces on her way to achieving stardom.
Camp
Reeling from two devastating tragedies, Emily (Zola Grimmer) takes refuge at a summer camp for troubled youth, where she has been offered a position as counsellor. She finds friendship, but also something more unexpected, something truly troubling...
