Instead of following the wishes of her parents and flying to Toronto, Mo-yung (Anita Yuen) journeys instead to NYC, in hope of finding Benny (Simon Yam), the man she loves. There, she meets Rubie, a sympathetic clinic worker who helps her to settle in the city.
In 1995, the young Taiwanese woman writer Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in Paris's Montmartre district, leaving behind the autobiographical novel LAST WORDS IN MONTMARTRE. Two decades later, the novel was published in English by the prestigious New York Review Books, bringing Qiu renown in Western literary circles and quickly prompting translations into other European languages. Qiu is considered the first openly lesbian novelist in the history of Chinese literature; her debut novel, NOTES OF A CROCODILE, became a "Bible" for the Taiwanese lesbian community and an underground classic in Taiwan and Hong Kong, with an official edition finally published in 2012. DEATH IN MONTMARTRE travels through Taiwan, Paris, and New York to trace the life of this literary star who enjoyed fame only after her death, interviewing literary masters from Taiwan, France, and the U.S. while discussing LGBTQ culture and lesbian literature from a perspective of equality.
Student rebels, labor organizers, Trotskyites, anarchists, sojourners in Paris, and human rights activists are the cast of real-life characters featured in THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WU ZHONG XIAN. Based on a stage play, this DV feature traces the poignant trajectory of a rebel whose dream of world revolution first landed him in battles against British colonialism in the 70s, and later on his deathbed in the mid-90s, in agonies over the uncertain fate of a revitalized China. Revealing a little-known chapter of rebellion and idealism, THE LIFE AND TIMES OF WU ZHONG XIAN is a timely, resonant docu-drama for today's Hong Kong, China, and our ideologically-disillusioned era.
