Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 15 hours ago
Henry Stephen. It doesn't exactly scream "Chinese", and Henry's daughter Mary, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong with her family when she was 15, has been asked about her surname all her life. But her dad's account of his background, in a multi-volume memoir, is quite surprising. Returning to China and armed not only with the journals but reams of 8mm home movies from the 1950s and 60s, Mary unravels this claim and comes up with different hypotheses, freighted with thorny questions of history, colonialism, pride and prejudice.
Winner: Best Documentary, Best Editing, Taipei Golden Horse Awards
Playing at VIFF Centre from August 14, 2026
Tickets: viff.org/whats-on/palimpsest-the-story-of-a-name
Henry Stephen. It doesn't exactly scream "Chinese", and Henry's daughter Mary, who immigrated to Canada from Hong Kong with her family when she was 15, has been asked about her surname all her life. But her dad's account of his background, in a multi-volume memoir, is quite surprising. Returning to China and armed not only with the journals but reams of 8mm home movies from the 1950s and 60s, Mary unravels this claim and comes up with different hypotheses, freighted with thorny questions of history, colonialism, pride and prejudice.
Winner: Best Documentary, Best Editing, Taipei Golden Horse Awards
Playing at VIFF Centre from August 14, 2026
Tickets: viff.org/whats-on/palimpsest-the-story-of-a-name
