When fourth-year College student Jolinna Li arrived in Taiwan this past summer to start working on her directorial debut, she brought with her only an idea for a script. By the end of her stay in Taipei, she had finished shooting ““Stories of the Return, ”a 50-minute-long Chinese-language film demonstrating her talents as a writer and a filmmaker.
From its length to the scope of her responsibilities, “Stories of the Return” is Li’s most expansive project to date and the first film she directed entirely on her own. The film — a fictional narrative with semi-autobiographical elements — is about a Taiwanese-American director who returns to Taiwan to shoot a script written by her deceased mother. The film premiered Sept. 29 in Newcomb Theater.
Li’s film tackles, among many themes, cultural differences between descendants of immigrants and their ancestral nations. Through the film’s protagonist — who is also Taiwanese-American — Li addresses her own relationship with Taiwan.
Li, a studio art and English major at the University, began her journey into filmmaking well before she arrived on Grounds. Li said she has been around the art form her entire life as her mother, Anna Ma, is also a filmmaker. Having grown up surrounded by the medium, the Charlottesville native decided to try her hand at filmmaking in high school by participating in camps at Light House Studio — a Charlottesville organization that serves to introduce and promote filmmaking to local youths — during summer breaks.
This inspiration followed Li to the University, where she further cemented her passion by continuing to work with Light House and getting involved in cinematography on Grounds. At Light House, Li participated in the Adrenaline Film Project — a workshop in which teams of three write, shoot and edit a film in just 72 hours. Additionally, through the University's drama department, she worked as a cinematographer for Overcranked — a drama department course where students spend the first semester writing a film and the second semester shooting it.
Along with these filmmaking opportunities, Li’s experiences with language at the University were also foundational to the creation of “Stories of the Return.” In her third year, Li worked as a Chinese learning assistant at Shea House, a language immersion house on Grounds. Li said that engaging with the language was part of the inspiration behind wanting to make a film in Chinese.
“I think that [in the] year leading up to the filming, I was surrounded by the language a lot more,” Li said. “And I think that kind of helped [get the idea for the film], and also made me want to write something in Chinese.”
After applying to a number of internships for the 2024 summer, Li said she realized that she would rather apply for arts grants so that she could turn her idea for a Chinese-language story into a film. This dream became reality when Li received the University Undergraduate Award for Arts Projects and the Miller Rising 4th Year Award, both of which expand creative opportunities for students by providing funding to pursue larger-scale projects.
With this funding, Li was able to travel with her mother, sister and cousin to Taiwan to start work on “Stories of the Return.” Her mother, a filmmaker and screenwriter, acted in the film and helped with the script, while her sister and cousin helped with sound and other aspects of production behind the scenes.
Upon arriving in Taiwan, Li and her dedicated family film crew got right to work. The five week duration of the trip meant that there was no time to waste and the filming process had to unfold a bit unconventionally — roles were cast and scenes were shot while Li was still working on finishing the script.
“We started casting [and] trying to find all the locations,” Li said. “Meanwhile, I was still editing the script. So it was like, very much up until we shot it, it was being changed.”
Li said they found almost all of the supporting cast through advertisements posted around Fu Jen Catholic University, where Li’s mother studied film. After casting most of the characters, the last role the crew had to fill was the most important — Ma Yu Ge, the film’s protagonist. Li said she ultimately found her lead actress Letitia Cheng Ho-Yu by chance while waiting to meet friends at a music video exhibition at a university in Taipei.
“There was this station where they were presenting music videos,” Li said. “I was like, ‘who's your guy's best actress that you've worked with?’ and then they gave me her Instagram and I DM’ed her, and then she came to the audition.”
Ho-Yu plays Ma Yu Ge in Li’s film, the protagonist who travels back to Taiwan to shoot her film, which is titled “Gui Zhou.” This fictional film has a very real backstory, as Li’s mother wrote the script for it decades ago. According to Li, embedding the script in her film plays into the film’s greater theme of returning to one’s roots and rediscovering the family and culture that are integral parts of one’s identity.
While there were a number of her mother’s scripts she could have chosen, Li said she picked “Gui Zhou” because she loved reading it when she was younger and, most importantly, because of its Taiwanese setting.
Li uses dazzling cinematography to capture this setting, depicting scenes of the Taiwanese countryside filled with vibrant greens and shots of Taipei in motion to convey its bustling energy. The film’s visual artistry coupled with its message of familial and cultural connection creates a final project that is a true testament to Li’s years of passion and experience in filmmaking.
Li said she is unsure of what project she will pursue next, however, “Stories of the Return” is a sure sign that a promising film career is just beginning.
While a date is still being cemented, Li said she is planning for “Stories of the Return” to have its first post-premiere screening at Visible Records in Charlottesville.
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