Guián - CinemAsia

Throughout her life, filmmaker Nicole Chi Amén was unable to communicate with her grandmother, Guián, in words. Her grandmother never learned Spanish, and she never learned Chinese. Upon Guián’s passing, Nicole picks up her camera to visit the people who knew Guián and travels to Guián’s hometown in China. Her images compose a love letter to the grandmother she knew and an imagined conversation with the grandmother she did not.

Guián is an intimate journey of roots-searching told in beautiful, loving tenderness. It is about the linguistic differences that separate, but above all, the familial ties that bind. Chi Amén’s feature documentary debut spans generations and continents, taking the audience along her personal journey to answer the questions she was never able to ask.