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In today's episode, I interview Birdy Wei-Ting Hung, the director of the experimental short film "A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers." The film looks at the experience of a young girl in 1980s Taiwan and won a gold award at the 2024 Student Academy Awards.

Listen to hear how the film was inspired by two other films, how important formative film experiences are, and the importance of the sound to create the world of the film.

Books mentioned in this episode include:

• Abject Pleasures in the Cinematic: The Beautiful, Sexual Arousal, and Laughter by Aaron Kerner
• Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong

Films mentioned in this episode include:

• "A Brighter Summer Day for the Lady Avengers” directed by Birdy Wei-Ting Hung
• The Lady Avenger directed by Yang Chia-Yun
• A Brighter Summer Day directed by Edward Yang
• Kill Bill Vol. 1 directed by Quentin Tarantino
• Kill Bill Vol. 2 directed by Quentin Tarantino
• Amer directed by Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani
• Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion directed by Shunya Itō
• Suspiria (1977) directed by Dario Argento
• Suspiria (2018) directed by Luca Guadagnino
• Lady Snowblood directed by Toshiya Fujita
• All the Colors of the Dark directed by Sergio Martino

You can follow Birdy on Instagram @birdymakesfilms and check out her website at https://www.birdyweitinghung.org/.

The film showed at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX last month and can be seen this month at the Kaohsiung Film Festival in Taiwan from October 12-27.

Read Birdy's essay about the two films that inspired her work at MaiFeminism.com.