Light of the Setting Sun

Official Selection, 2024 CAAMFest
Official Selection, 2024 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

In LIGHT OF THE SETTING SUN, filmmaker Vicky Du lovingly writes the history of her family’s encounters with political violence and intergenerational trauma. Through an assemblage of family keepsakes and intimate interviews with relatives, Du tells a story that strives to encompass the myriad, complicated truths of her family. Tracing the events of the Communist Revolution of 1949 that led her family to migrate from China to Taiwan and the United States, she reveals the ever-present entanglement of the personal and political.

While the impetus for the film was the trauma that came to light during family therapy, Du refuses to locate blame in the family members whose pain caused her own. She reaches into her family’s history to grasp trauma at its root and finds that there is no singular truth to be found, only more stories to weave into her own. LIGHT OF THE SETTING SUN is not a simple story of forgiveness, reconciliation, or even understanding; it is a commitment to seeing and struggling with suffering that seems unspeakable.

– Emily Liu

As part of the Taiwan Showcase, this screening is FREE for UCSD students, faculty, and staff with ID.