Support Aephie's Journey to Festivals and Research

Aephie Chen is organizing this fundraiser.

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Thanks to many supporters last autumn, we were able to complete the short film MAMU and submitted it to festivals. After the world premiere at Sundance Film Festival London in June 2024, MAMU is set to travel far to festivals that have not been publicly announced yet. We are fundraising to support the writer-director Aephie, cast and lead creative team to be able to travel with this film to different countries in the following months. The funds will also help us to do research, location scouting and casting to prepare for the director's debut feature film that is set in the same story world as MAMU.

MAMU is a very personal film that echoes to many of us a once in a lifetime decision to leave our homeland and how a part of us will always long to go back.

✨ audience reviews ✨ Sundance Film Festival London 2024 MAMU

“MAMU made me thought of my Burmese family who rarely speak their native language anymore, but when they do it’s like a new realm of their personality awakes…” - Matt Lulu @matt_lulu

“Coming from and raising a very mixed family this was insightful and thought provoking. Many of my family have made ‘new’ homes here but I imagine they all think about their homeland. Interestingly I didn’t feel sad rather heart-warmed actually. MAMU was beautiful. Excited to see the feature length.” - Leona Hayden @leonahayden

“I was moved deeply despite the brief runtime. I felt a nostalgia for a time, place and culture that isn’t mine. The main actor, Aki Rupi, his face was so evocative while doing so little. It lit up the big screen.” - Nils Åstrand @onenils

「看電影即是期待在光影以及故事之中尋找歸屬，而Mamu以最真摯的方式講述了一個非常難過的故事，任何游離的靈魂都能在此找到共鳴。導演Aephie巧妙地在極短的篇幅內道盡了人生的異化，而Aki Rupi爐火純青又動人的表演完美詮釋了這些生命不可承受之重，這讓這個最私密的故事，超越時間、空間以及語言，延展成能讓任何人都能有情感連結的故事。生命的寂寞、溫暖、歸屬，以及一切不可言喻的，全部都在Mamu的影格與影格之間了。」- 呂珮瑄 @lupei404

“MAMU was very beautiful. I felt sad but also energised. I thought the indigenous language was really cool.” - Bella Whiteway @spongebellasquarepants

“So beautiful to see MAMU on a big screen- amazing work! It really comes alive with the sound and all the small design details- thank you for this honest work, so proud and excited for you! “- Thembisa Cochrane @thembisa_c

“The word I would use to describe the film MAMU is “quivering” - the sound and visuals feel like they’re quivering with emotion.” - Jo Elise @_joelise

“@aephie_ has woven such complex personal experiences into a story with so much depth and beauty, that makes me reframe my own memories of loss." - Nicola Young @nicolayoungphotography

“Mamu was one of my favorite films of the Sundance Shorts selection. It made me cry and, as an immigrant myself, start to think about my family and what home means to me. A must watch!” - Lian Dyogi @lian_dyogi

"What @aephie_huimi has done with MAMU is intricately weave together a tapestry of intimate, personal experiences and a poetic study of memories, dreams and difficult realities. Aephie expertly conveys the nuances of language with her script, emphasising its role in love, loss and identity, and employing a haunting soundscape which speaks volumes where language itself falls short for the characters at the centre of the story. MAMU’s potent raw emotion owes so much to the brilliant yet subtle central performances, anchored by gorgeous cinematography that brings to life a very tangible sense of a self in limbo. This enchanting film is a true privilege to watch." - Lilia Pavin-Franks @liliamayaa

"MAMU is a beautiful and artistic film that succeeds in an enchanting way, and at the same time revealing complex viewpoints, to give us insight into an intimate relationship. A deep longing and the speechless world of the main actor. The film gives us a sympathetic perspective of a common reality of many people today, by using clever editing, soundscape and a good script.” - Eygló Hardardottir @eyglohardardottir

「《Mamu》是一部描述臺灣原住民族群的「離散」（diaspora）的優秀作品。主角Mayaw是一位罹患阿茲海默的阿美族長者，與女兒Rina居住在倫敦。對Mayaw 而言，他所經歷的「離散」是由不同層次的離異堆疊而成：與部落和親族的離異、與年輕和健康的自己的離異、以及與不懂族語的女兒的離異。而對Rina來說，父親的病情都讓他和他經歷的「離散」成為陌生的存在。導演 @aephie_ 透過山海河、陶偶等場景與物件的安排，巧妙地呈現一位父親在虛實交錯之間重拾和女兒與母土之間的聯繫。」- 林仁傑 @jen.lin__23

“with MAMU, @aephie_ manages to embody the fabrics of culture and memory by revealing the importance of sound. The lyrical representation of time and the consequences of loosing memory, including language, brilliantly doubles as a metaphor for the consequences of colonialism. The film displays how sonic fingerprints are carved into people, just like culture, language, and human relations.” - Ida Schuften @knackere_d

「在導演的鏡頭下，以兒時熟悉的曲調、遠方隱約的地景勾起回憶，處理對於家人間、時代間的牽絆，儘管流散的日子，因為記憶仍在，且是如此脆弱卻而強韌的引導著仍活著的人們，使其跨越言語隔閡，仍有傳達情感的可能。人在面對自身故事最難能，雖是只是導演的短篇，卻能帶出真摯的情感，而不帶扭捏矯作，期待故事未來發展的模樣。」- 楊昕@sin_lavigne

”Past memories are like waves, returning to us unexpectedly. “Mamu” is the wave that crashes upon Director Aephie Chen. In “Mamu,” @aephie_ takes a personal voyage through various times and spaces, reconnecting with her past and Taiwanese heritage. This cinematic journey serves as a bridge between her and her family and between filmmaker and audience, evoking profound emotions sincerely, all conveyed without words.“ — @pengshaoyu

「那些銘刻在心底，屬於原生家庭的印記，終將如浪濤，一次次拍打，重返，連結。《Mamu》便是導演陳繪彌 @aephie_huimi 心中襲來的浪。她不迴避退後，而是向前迎面，完成這趟溯回過去的私人尋訪。身在異地的失語者尋尋覓覓，發現是那來自原鄉的歌謠，牽起跨越時間與空間的羈絆。這部作品不僅是她與家人的橋樑，也同時連接創作者和觀眾的情感共鳴，動人真摯，盡在不言中。」— 彭紹宇

”MAMU, directed by @aephie_ , is a heartfelt short film that delves into the nature of identity. Through a poetic and compassionate narrative, the film examines the loss of memory, and depicts what can happen when we are uprooted from our culture and planted in one that feels alien and cold. MAMU is a moving portrayal of how language, culture, and close family connections are so deeply intertwined, and of how precious our memories are to us when we are searching for who we are.“ - Gavin Whyte @gav_whytewrites

”Mamu is short film that brings the audience into a special limbo between the memory world and reality. Aephie, the director, spending years finding the story and cleverly weaved a complex but genuine visual piece to discuss the concept of home and memories with love ones. Stunning visuals, incredible sound scape, a journey that I would never forget!“ - Sunshine Hsien Yu Niu @h.y.niu

“Mamu demonstrates the power of love and the hardship and dilemma as a carer and an immigrant. This sentimental story reflects on many of us facing difficulties in life but trying the best to integrate with other cultures.” - 李宣儀 @shelleylee03

“MAMU throws a thought stone to everyone in the world. I love the fact that it’s open , and many people can have a different take on it! It has an aspect of relating within at many moments. I immediately thought about my dad who is from Wales and has been living in Japan for more than 40 years is nowadays trying to learn Welsh. Trying to find his roots back at the age of 86. Back in his childhood, the schools in south Wales weren’t taught them Welsh. I was born and breed in Japan, now lives in London, I can totally relate to both of the characters in the film.” - Karina Tanabe Jones @karinatjones

“MAMU was incredibly moving & powerful. I was fighting back tears during most of it!”- Belle Chen @bellepianist

“Thank you for making such a beautiful film. I loved every single scene and the sounds.. Can’t wait to see your next film✨” - Sohee [email redacted]poser

“As a Taiwanese, seeing and hearing the Amis and their language are quite amazing. I’m not familiar with it but it’s still very touching to see through the film and gradually figure out the story.” - Vic Ying @vinkying

“Though only a writer/director debutant, Aephie and her crew have crafted a combination of cinematography, colouring and brilliant sound design, among everything else in MAMU, to tell a story that will resonate with people of all ages and backgrounds. The importance of remembrance is a central theme of this piece, communicated through a visually stunning juxtaposition between young and aging, bright and dull environment, home and away. The symbolism depicted in this film is too expansive to put in a few words, and yet regardless of it’s melancholic and thought-provoking message, it is a truly enjoyable watch that I’d recommend to anyone.”-Yoan Petrov @yoan.g.p

“MAMU is a beautifully personal film that contains an entire universe; the relationship between father and daughter, between person and homeland, between languages, between lucidity and dreams. As her father begins to slip into another world, a nurse living alone with him in London as his sole carer tries to bridge the gap between them using care and touch when shared language can no longer connect them. Aephie’s film explores a task that has come or will come for many of us; caring for an ailing parent is presented as a frustrating and isolating, magical and colourful, loving and painful, experience. Memories of childhood, memories of ancestors and of lands, the totems of home waiting to greet us when we transition from one state of being to the next. The shore of the Thames marked by the feet of millions who have walked there, always arriving, always leaving, on the tide.” - Charlotte Ashcroft @charlottelyda

“MAMU has a dream like structure, interweaving the father’s happy memories of Rina as his little daughter, delightfully and very naturally portrayed by Olivia Simmons, and memories of home with the cruel reality of the present in which a grown up daughter has become his jailer. Aephie’s background includes lots of experience as Production Designer and it is clear from the way this film has been directed that an incredibly sophisticated attention to detail underpins every scene. I particularly loved the way the familiar greyness of the London urban Dockside beach with the high-rise buildings of the City away across the expanse of the river is mirrored and contrasted with the swathes of flat cultivated green with mountains as the backdrop.

The musical soundtrack by Ado Kaliting Pacidal @adokayting carried an emotional longing for an aboriginal Taiwanese homeland that greatly enhanced the nonverbal narrative in much the same way as the stunningly beautiful cinematography. The ‘family’ of terracotta ethic figures referencing an ancient time, long passed, sit incongruously in an urban garden. This is the iconic representation of the cultural displacement that has remained as the father’s memory has been eroded by disease to one of origin. Childhood fears and longing mysteriously become real in the present of some dementia sufferers, as indeed they did for my own mother.

It seems Aephie has directed Aki Rupi, apparently with no previous acting experience to ‘be’ the ailing old man, not ‘act’ as it is his presence that is the most haunting imagery. This presence is so natural and unaffected it could be a documentary. Yes, I cried.

Mamu is a remarkable, brilliantly made and deeply moving short film that punches way above its weight. It will be fascinating to see what the writer/director can achieve in a full-length format.”- Austen Penstemon @austenpenstemon