Meet-the-Filmmaker
Screening of I’ve Got the Blues 水底行走的人 and Conversation with Director Angie Chen
Date: Saturday, 20 September 2025
Time: 14:00-15:30 (screening); 15:30-16:00 (In-person conversation)
Venue: AERL 120, Aquatic Ecosystems Research Laboratory, University of British Columbia (UBC)
Address: 2202 Main Mall, Vancouver | Map | Parking
Join us for the Vancouver screening of the award-winning documentary I’ve Got the Blues 《水底行走的人》(2017) to celebrate the work of Director Angie Chen 陳安琪, a trailblazing woman filmmaker who leads a transnational filmmaking career since the 1980s.
Born in Shanghai in 1949, Angie Chen studied in Taiwan before earning her bachelor’s and master’s degree at the University of Iowa. She pursued filmmaking in UCLA’s distinguished MFA program. Her first documentary, Der Besuch (The Visit, 1981), which was about her father, and was filmed in Germany, has been critically acclaimed internationally.
She returned to Hong Kong and entered the commercial industry in the 1980s. She directed several feature films including Maybe It’s Love (1984), My Name Ain’t Suzie (1985), and Chaos By Design (1988). She turned to making commercials and publicity shorts before re-emerging as a documentary filmmaker.
This Vancouver screening presents her latest film I’ve Got the Blues, a documentary featuring Chen as herself and Hong Kong artist Wong Yan Kwai, Yank.
During its tour around the world, the film has garnered numerous accolades including the Best Feature-length Documentary Award from Festival Film Dokumenter in Indonesia, The Hong Kong Film Critics Society Film of Merit Award, and the Hong Kong Film Director’s Guild Special Committee Award.
Following the film screening, Director Angie Chen will conduct an in-person conversation with the audience.
Conversation in English. Film in Cantonese with English subtitles.
In person event. Open to all. Free admission.
Seats limited. Registration required.
I’ve Got the Blues 水底行走的人
Hong Kong | Documentary | English, Cantonese | 90 mins | 2017
Directed by Angie Chen
Produced by Angie Chen and Pamela Lay
Synopsis
I’ve Got the Blues, is established up-front in an intimate exchange over drinks:
Filmmaker Angie Chen (as herself) has an unexplained but long relationship with artist Wong Yan Kwai (Yank) and is out to make a film about his work and motivations. The problem is that Yank is not telling.
In the interaction, sparks and arguments, egos and humility, love and betrayal, and human complexities surface. The film also shows a bohemian corner of Hong Kong never revealed, and invites audience to question the very nature of documentary.
Trailer
Film festivals & Awards:
2017 Best Feature-length Documentary Award, Festival Film Dokumenter
2018 Hong Kong Film Critics Society – Film Merit Award
2018 Special Award Film of Distinction,The Hong Kong Film Director’s Guild
2017 World premiere: Vancouver International Film Festival
2017 Busan International Film Festival
2018 Dublin International Film Festival
2018 Hong Kong International Film Festival
2018 Singapore Chinese Film Festival
2018 Taipei Film Festival
2018 The 11th Chinese Documentary Festival
2018 SFFILM San Francisco Film Festival
2018 Ecrans de Chine, Paris
2018 Dokuarts Zeughauskin, Berlin
2018 London East Asian Film Festival
2019 Tai Kwun, Center for Heritage and Arts Hong Kong
2019 Hong Kong Fringe Club
2019 Cinecina, NY
2019 HOME, Manchester, UK
2019 HK Independent Film Festival, Berlin
About Director Angie On-Kei Chen 陳安琪
Angie Chen received her BA and MA from University of Iowa, and her MFA from UCLA.
Her first short Der Besuch (aka The Visit, 1980) has been critically acclaimed internationally.
After making three features in the 80s, Maybe It’s Love 《窺情》(1983), My Name Ain’t Suzy《花街時代》(1985), and Love Riddle 《愛情謎語》(1987), she entered the commercial film business in 1990. Since 2008, she has directed and produced three feature documentaries:
This Darling Life 《愛與狗同行》(2008) was nominated Best Documentary at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards;
One Tree Three Lives《三生三世 聶華苓》(2012) garnered the Film Merit Award at the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards.
I’ve got the blues《水底行走的人》(2017) is her latest work.
This event is organized by the UBC Hong Kong Studies Initiative, and is supported by UBC Department of Asian Studies.
Registration for “[Meet-the-Filmmaker] Film Screening of I’ve Got the Blues and Conversation with Director Angie Chen
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