Clan of

the Painted Lady

TRAILER

A Hakka-Canadian filmmaker traces her family's past in Kolkata, India and confronts the impact of migration on identity and family, exploring the space between generations where culture hangs in the balance.

The Hakka are descendants of northern Chinese nomads whose origins are unknown and whose name means ‘guest family’. Over centuries of war and upheaval, they migrated south through China and eventually across the globe.

Clan of the Painted Lady follows my personal journey from China to Canada to India, to discover why we move and how we keep our heritage alive whilst adapting to new places. With an ensemble of Hakka voices from around the world, the film explores how culture is transmitted from one generation to another, and the challenge of defining identity within a diaspora.

Through my own story, I explore the weight of parent-child separation which migration often entails, and the loss and disconnection that must somehow be healed.

As we begin new lives in new places, what do we hold on to—and what must we let go of? Will we be able to remember who we are as we move through the world?

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY

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.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT

I grew up without my father, who lived most of his life in Kolkata, India where our ancestors settled nearly 100 years ago. Over the last few years of visiting him in India before he moved back to Canada, I watched Tangra, the home of our Hakka-Chinese community, be demolished and developed at a rapid pace. I could feel how close we were to losing the last physical remnants of our history.

As a Chinese-Canadian person born in India, I spent a lot of my early life feeling disconnected from all the places where my life had landed. As I became more curious about my family story, I realized how much had already been lost or forgotten, including my ability to speak Hakka. As the imminent disappearance of our community in India loomed, I was left wondering, what’s left of us when it’s gone? How do we remember ourselves in the face of so much erasure?

My desire to remember compelled me to make this film. It taught me that culture lives or dies in the delicate space between generations. One severed tie may augur many cycles of loss and disconnection, because it only takes one generation to forget.

I believe that choosing to remember the journeys, teachings, stories and recipes of our ancestors is a radical act. It is an antidote for the loss of language, culture and collective memory that is endemic across the world today.

If I had one wish for the film, it would be that a few people might become curious about their own cultures and families and start asking questions before it’s too late. As my film testifies, relationships with family and community aren’t easy, but they offer something immeasurable: a root system that keeps us grounded and connected no matter where we are or choose to go.

SPECIFICATIONS

TITLE

YEAR OF PRODUCTION

DURATION

COUNTRY OF PRODUCTION

GENRE

SHOOTING FORMAT

FINISH FORMAT

ASPECT RATIO

SOUND FORMAT

LANGUAGE

SUBTITLES

ACCESSIBILITY

Clan of the Painted Lady

2025

101 min

Canada

Documentary

Digital

DCP

1.66

Stereo

English, Hakka, Bengali

English and Traditional Chinese

Closed Captioning and Descriptive

ASSETS

POSTER

ELECTRONIC PRESS KIT

TRAILER

BEHIND THE SCENES

Photo, Jennifer Chiu

Photo, Yuenkee Liao

Photo, Jennifer Chiu

Photo, Yuenkee Liao

Photo, Jennifer Chiu

Photo, Yuenkee Liao

Photo, Jennifer Chiu

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