In a claustrophobic Macau where secrets cannot hide, a filmmaker turns the camera inward, using intimate dialogues and fragmented memories to write a farewell letter to her beloved home.
Born in 1991, I grew up in a Macau defined by shifting tides: the twilight of colonial rule and the neon-lit surge of the gambling boom. But beneath the city’s glittering transformation lies a silent, personal ache—the forgotten migration wave to Taiwan that separated my father from me.
My father was only away for a year, yet that brief absence cost us a decade of silence. I know of others whose parents missed their entire secondary school years, leaving a void that never quite closed. Through the lens of my own therapeutic journey, this film confronts the “ghosts” of my childhood. By weaving together intimate conversations with my father, shared reflections from my peers, and long-buried archival footage, I peel back the layers of a collective trauma masked by forced independence.
This is a quest to bridge the intergenerational void. In re-examining these silent wounds, I seek not only to reclaim my family’s history but to define Macau’s post-colonial identity—a blank space waiting to be filled. It is a journey of reconciliation: with our past, with our parents, and ultimately, with ourselves.
Filmmaker and Artist. Her practice begins with family memory, migration, and everyday observation through moving images, archival research, and fieldwork. She graduated from the Department of Filmmaking at Taipei National University of the Arts. In 2024, her works were featured in a focus program at Taiwan’s Taoyuan Documentary Project.
Hui-Chen Huang is a self-taught filmmaker who learned her craft from life itself. Her debut feature, Small Talk, won the Teddy Award at the Berlinale. Currently developing her second feature, LOMÁ, she also serves as a producer, dedicated to collaborating with intriguing souls to tell captivating stories.