In 1995, the young Taiwanese woman writer Qiu Miaojin committed suicide in Paris’s Montmartre district, leaving behind the autobiographical novel LAST WORDS IN MONTMARTRE. Two decades later, the novel was published in English by the prestigious New York Review Books, bringing Qiu renown in Western literary circles and quickly prompting translations into other European languages. Qiu is considered the first openly lesbian novelist in the history of Chinese literature; her debut novel, NOTES OF A CROCODILE, became a “Bible” for the Taiwanese lesbian community and an underground classic in Taiwan and Hong Kong, with an official edition finally published in 2012. DEATH IN MONTMARTRE travels through Taiwan, Paris, and New York to trace the life of this literary star who enjoyed fame only after her death, interviewing literary masters from Taiwan, France, and the U.S. while discussing LGBTQ culture and lesbian literature from a perspective of equality.
'In Vitro' is an otherworldly rumination on memory, history, place and identity. Set in Bethlehem decades after an ecological-disaster, the dying founder of a subterranean orchard is engaged in a dialogue with her young successor, who was born underground and has never seen the town she's destined to replant and repopulate. Inherited trauma, exile and collective memory are central themes.