SMALL TALK
The unspoken love of a family is written in the silence between each conversation
Winners of the Teddy Award for Best Documentary Film at the 2017 Berlin Film Festival, Best Documentary at the 2017 Taipei Film Awards, and the 2017 TIDF Taiwan Competition Grand Prize. Nominated for Best Documentary and Best Editing at the 2016 Golden Horse Award.
Through a series of long shots, Hui-Chen interviews her mother, A-nu, about her troubled past—as a lesbian pressured into an arranged marriage at an early age with an abusive husband—and their uncomfortable estrangement that persists even after decades of living under the same roof. Further conversations with A-nu’s siblings and ex-lovers produce a frank and complex portrait that reflects the prejudices and mores of society at large while remaining both universally significant and courageously intimate. Though considered taboo to question a mother’s love, Hui-Chen does just that, asking difficult questions that have plagued her for many years.
Documentary | Hui-Chen Huang | 2017 | 89 min
Language: Mandarin and Tawianese
Subtitles: English and Traditional Chinese
Screening Time: Saturday, Sept. 9th, 9:00PM
Director Biography
Hui-Chen Huang
Prior to embarking on her first documentary, Huang worked for Taiwanese NGOs, advocating for labour rights and social justice. It was during this time that she began documenting the plight of the disadvantaged and the voiceless. Her intimate profiles of the less fortunate and the exploited became tools used for social change.
English (Canada) 
繁體中文