Huang Hui-zhen (born 1978, Taipei, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese documentary filmmaker.
Early life At the age of 6, Huang began participating in traditional funeral ceremonies known as Qian Wang Ge Zhen (the Soul-guiding Singing Array) with her mother. Due to her father's long-term domestic violence, her mother took kids away from home. Huang dropped out of school in the third grade and joined her mother in performing funeral rituals across Taiwan to make a living.
Career In 1998, Taiwanese filmmaker Yang Li-zhou made a documentary about young girls involved in funeral processions, with the 20-year-old Huang as one of the subjects. During the filming, she learned what a documentary was. Huang bought a small home video camera to document her own life. She took a documentary filmmaking course at the New Taipei City Luzhou Community University and became actively involved in social movements.
During her involvement in social activism, Huang created two short documentaries about foreign laborers, Hospital Wing 8 East and Uchan Is Going Home (). At the same time, she kept filming her family, sharing her mother and her story. The Priestess Walks Alone and Small Talk are short and feature-length documentary about their story.
Social participation In 2016, she participated in the second public hearing on legalizing same-sex marriage organized by the Judicial and Legal Affairs Committee of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan, where she spoke about her personal family experiences and her support for marriage equality.
Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 2006 Hospital Wing 8 East (八東病房） Director, writer Short film 2009 Uchan Is Going Home (烏將要回家） Director Short film 2016 The Priestess Walks Alone (我和我的T媽媽） Director Short film (Official website) 2016 Small Talk (日常對話) Director, executive producer, writer 2020 Loma - Our Home (LOMA - 我們的家) Director n/a
Awards + Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result 2009Labor Film AwardInternational workers AwardUchan Is Going HomePremium2016South AwardJury's AwardThe Priestess Walks AloneHuman Rights AwardThe Priestess Walks Alone53rd Golden Horse AwardsBest DocumentarySmall TalkBest Film EditingJessica Lin Wan-yu2017Berlin International Film FestivalTeddy Award for Best DocumentarySmall Talk17th Chinese Film Media AwardsBest FilmSmall Talk
References
External links
Huang Hui-Chen at Berlinale Talents