The 2021 Taiwanese film A Letter to A'ma (給阿媽的一封信), and Q&A with the director, will play at Carnegie Mellon University on April 16. The event is hosted by the Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association and co-hosted by Café Philo Pittsburgh and the Taiwanese Scholar Society in Pittsburgh.
In A Letter to A’ma, Taiwanese art teacher/filmmaker Hui-Ling returns to her childhood home to mourn the passing of her grandmother. As she pieces together the fragmented memories of her youth, she finds herself coming face-to-face with the problematic issue of her country’s fractured history. Through a student art project guided by this teacher that has lasted for over a decade, a representational portrait of the island’s collective memory begins to emerge, initiating a process in which Taiwan, an island-nation forgotten by the world and in the midst of forgetting itself after centuries of colonization and decades of dictatorship, can now remember its past and re-envision its postcolonial identity through art.
Director Hui-Ling Chen will attend for a post-screening Q&A!
*A Letter to A'ma (Taiwan, 2021, 97 min) is in Taiwanese Hokkien, Indigenous Taiwanese languages, Mandarin & Japanese, with English subtitles
Presented by Pittsburgh Taiwanese Association
Co-presented by Café Philo at Pittsburgh and the Taiwanese Scholar Society in Pittsburgh
About the director:
Hui-Lin Chen was a high school art teacher before leaving her post to study cinema in France. After studying cinema, she returned to Taiwan and founded the educational project: “The collective memory of the island,” while filming the documentary A Letter to A’ma. She has collaborated with schools across the country to empower youths in harnessing their creativity through art. The film testifies to the dedication over ten years of this project. In 2018, she received an award from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan for her contribution to arts education for the younger generation.
給阿媽的一封信 - 影片簡介:
一封寫給離世祖母的家書，一篇獻給台灣的祭禱文。一個被世界遺忘的失憶之島，如何在後殖民時代，透過藝術行動重建認同？
本片作者陳慧齡從海外回到故鄉悼念離世的祖母，除了面對模糊的家族記憶，她也意識到國家歷史的斷裂問題 :台灣，一座歷經四百年殖民以及近半世紀獨裁的島嶼。陳慧齡邀請多位年輕人以家族記憶為題進行創作，長年跟拍他們尋根過程；同時她跟許多學校合作，透過給學生們的一個美術作業：訪談祖父母並為他們繪製肖像畫，來實踐一個歷時十年的行為藝術：「群像」的拼組，關於台灣的集體記憶。
在教室裡我們看到最美的風景：台灣新生代輪番闡述各族群的遷徙路線，最後都在這塊島嶼上相遇。彼此聆聽的過程，串連起不同甚至相對立場的記憶斷片，直到建構出一個龐大的群像。
如同自由之鯨在濃霧中自海面浮起：一雙炯炯有神的眼、一張臉、許多張不同的臉、我們的臉……
導演簡介:
陳慧齡曾任中學美術教師，辭掉教職到法國念電影，學成後回台灣以「給阿媽的一封信」紀錄片拍攝活動，發起「島嶼的集體記憶計畫」，與全國各校合作，引導年輕人以繪畫詮釋家族故事，並邀請學生參與集體創作。
陳慧齡藉由這個長年累積的行為藝術，在全國各社區收集肖像畫，進而建構島嶼的時代群像。最後，她以「給阿媽的一封信」影片見證十年實踐成果。她於2018年獲得了教育部第五屆藝術教育貢獻獎。
主辦單位：匹茲堡台灣同鄉會
協辦單位：匹茲堡哲學星期五，匹茲堡台灣學人學生會