Sunflower (2022)

US · 23 min · 2022

• Drama
• Short

Directed by: Mingjie Tang

Written by: Mingjie Tang

This short film is based on the director's personal experience when she was a freshman in China. However, the real Jie didn't choose to report the professor but decided to forget this incident. "I still think about this from time to time, and I wonder if he has done this to any other students since then. If the school found about this, will they expel him? If I had reported him, would there have been no more victims?" "I thought about reporting it, and I wanted him to be punished, but I found I couldn't. I was too scared, and I didn't want anyone to know about this." "It was a good thing I was wearing jeans. If I had worn a dress, things would be much worse." But dear Jie, no matter what you were wearing, it's not your fault. You just walked into his office on a normal day, as anyone else would do. But why are you blaming yourself? Wasn't he the one who made a mistake? Women remain silent out of the fear of losing their future career, out of the fear of fighting absolute power. This collective silence reflects problems in the male-dominated social system. It's sick, but it's pervasive. And the meaning of this film is to encourage more of us to be no longer silent.