Untold Herstory screening with Q&A

This screening is part of the film screening series, Cinematic Witnesses: Documenting Figures of Resistance in East Asian Democracies, a response to the martial law declaration and the ongoing political crisis in Korea since December 2024.

Untold Herstory (Zero Chou, dir., 2022)  It’s 1953 and martial law has been imposed on Taiwan. The White Terror period lasted over four decades, and was alert to slightest hints of dissent. This is a story of female ‘thought prisoners’ confined to Green Island, a penal colony off Taiwan’s eastern coast, who couldn’t stop thinking. They’re only let out of their barracks to sit through ‘re-education’ classes and carry out hard labour. When authorities start forcing prisoners to ‘volunteer’ to demonstrate their dictated patriotism – requiring signatures in blood, anti-communist tattoos upon their bodies – rebellion begins to intensify.

Discussant: Erin Y. Huang (Assistant Professor, East Asian Studies)

Moderator: Juwon Kim (Ph.D. Candidate, East Asian Studies)