A Special showing of a Spilled Water
And conversation with the Director, May May Tchao
When: Sunday, October 19. 11:00 AM
Where: Community Room, St. Luke’s Presbyterian Church
SPILLED WATER explores how the economic transformation of China is changing the roles, rights, and social status of its women. Wanting to connect with her ‘distant sisters’, decades after emigrating to the United States, May May Tchao returns to China and explores the very different lives of four women: a young rural farmer who against all odds, became a teacher; a successful lawyer in a male-dominated profession juggling her work with single motherhood; a divorced factory worker struggling to brighten her daughter’s future; and a Dongzu ethnic minority singer torn between her dreams and her responsibilities as a peasant’s wife. From the urban hustle of Beijing to the desolate beauty of rural provinces, their intimate stories unveil why gender equality in China is so hard-earned and worth the struggle.
DIRECTOR BIO, May May Tchao
Born in China, raised in Hong Kong, and a U.S. citizen for nearly forty years, May May Tchao’s professional history is in advertising. After earning degrees from the University of Wisconsin/Madison and Syracuse University, she worked with bluechip clients in creative leadership and consulting positions in Chicago for several decades. After sending her last child to college in 2009, May May Tchao dove into documentary filmmaking, developing film concepts that document China’s dramatic economic and cultural shifts as a way to give voice to Chinese women. May May’s unique background brings a tailored understanding of her homeland’s culture, allowing her to see its different virtues and burdens with empathy and a clear eye. Selftaught and a firm believer in “learning by doing,” she developed her craft by collaborating with top talents. During the creation of SPILLED WATER, she consulted with filmmakers at Kartemquin Films and worked with highlyskilled local Chinese crew for research and production. SPILLED WATER is May May’s first feature film. The idea for this hourlong documentary about the changing roles, rights and status of women in China came to her nearly twenty years ago four of which took SPILLED WATER to completion.
