“Clan of the Painted Lady” Film Screening & Director Q&A
Date:
May 23, 2026, 2:00 pm
Location:
VIFF Centre
[1181 Seymour Street, VIFF Cinema]
Schedule:
2 to 3:45 P.M. – Film screening: Clan of the Painted Lady
3:45 to 4:15 P.M. – Audience Q&A with director Jennifer Chiu
Cost:
$12–$17 per ticket
In this engrossing documentary, presented for Asian Heritage Month, director Jennifer Chiu reaches into her family’s history to explore the Hakka community — a people, a language, and a culture. Thought to hail from northern 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 people’s 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.
Guest Speaker
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.
This screening is co-presented with the Vancouver International Film Festival.
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