As an independent documentary filmmaker, Louisa Wei became a member of the Hong Kong Director's Guild in 2018 and has twice served as professional jury for the Hong Kong Film Awards.
Monday, October 13, 2025
1:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Main Conference Room (room 11360)
Charles E. Young Research Library
Synopsis: Chairman Mao Zedong was looked upon as “the Red Sun” in China. Many regarded him as the “God” who saved the Chinese people from years of war and suffering, but Mao's deity status was achieved by destroying the autonomy of Chinese intellectuals, silencing them through the implementation of Communist regime and a series of political “storms.” Storm under the Sun is about the storm which fell upon Hu Feng, a renowned writer and literary theorist since the 1930s. He founded the July and Hope magazines and nurtured a generation of poets and writers. The Communist Party organized rounds of systematic criticism on Hu Feng between 1944 and 1954. In 1955, Mao personally directed a nation-wide campaign against him and his friends. The Hu Feng Case resulted in the imprisonment of 92 Chinese intellectuals, mostly poets and writers, and led to the incrimination of more than 2,100 people. Some of these victims were Hu Feng’s friends or students, but most only knew him through his works. This documentary is the first to revisit these events after more than half a century, inviting nearly thirty survivors of the harsh “storm” to reveal the cruel truths that lie beneath China’s official history. Archive footage, animations, woodcut prints and original music are used to enrich the narrative.
Louisa Wei: With a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Alberta (Canada) and a MA in Comparative Literature from Carleton University (Canada), Professor Wei joined the School of Creative Media in 2001 and has taught over 4000 students. She teaches both theory and production to BA and MA students, with popular courses like Documentary 1, Documentary 2, Visual Storytelling, Visualizing Literature, and Chinese Cinema. She has advised hundreds of student projects, many of which have won awards in international and local film festivals and competitions.
As an independent documentary filmmaker, Wei became a member of the Hong Kong Director’s Guild in 2018 and has twice served as professional jury for the Hong Kong Film Awards. She has written and directed four feature and three TV documentaries, including Cui Jian: Rocking China (崔健：搖滾中國2006, TV), Storm under the Sun (紅日風暴2009), Golden Gate Girls (金門銀光夢2014), Wang Shiwei: The Buried Writer (王實味：被淹沒的作家2016, for RTHK), Havana Divas (古巴花旦2018), Writing 10000 Miles (跋涉者蕭紅2019, for RTHK), and A Life in Six Chapters (蕭軍六記2022). Her feature works have gained international recognition from both academia and film festivals, as well as attracted media attention ranging from Hollywood’s trade magazine to major newspapers in Hong Kong and mainland China.
As a scholar and writer, Wei has published seven books including Woman’s Film: Dialogues with Chinese and Japanese Female Directors (女性的電影：對話中日女導演2009, co-author Yang Yuanying), PreAnimate: A Guide for Independent Animators (開始動畫2010, co-author Karen McCann), Cinema East and West (東西方電影2014 First Edition; 2016 Expanded Edition), Esther Eng: Ocean-crossing Film and Women Pioneers (霞哥傳奇：跨洋電影與女性先鋒2016, winner of Hong Kong Book Award 2017), Wang Shiwei: A Reform in Thinking (王實味：文藝整風與思想改造2016, winner of Distinguished Publishing Prize in the Literature and Fiction Category, The First Hong Kong Biennial Publishing Prize), and Hu Feng: Poetic Ideals and Political Storms (胡風：詩人理想與政治風暴2017).
Wei has published many articles on female writers/directors in Sinophone cinema in academic journals, anthologies, and encyclopaedias. She writes column articles in Chinese for general readers and often presents her work at university and community screenings around the world.
Co-Sponsored by the UCLA East Asian Library.
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies