Vicki Van Chau is a Calgary filmmaker who produced and directed two short films combining Chinese food and culture.Glenn Lowson/The Globe and Mail
For Calgary filmmaker Vicki Van Chau, it’s possible to tell the story of a food dish without even saying a word.
Ms. Van Chau has been on the rise in the film scene over the past five years thanks to her short films, which poetically tell the stories of Chinese dishes and Chinese culture through vibrant visuals and captivating scores. The films stand in contrast to an endless amount of food content available on streaming services and elsewhere that focus on narrators and hosts as much as the cuisine.
Ms. Van Chau graduated from the Alberta University of the Arts (formerly best known as ACAD) in 2008 and has spent the majority of her career working as an arts administrator for Enmedia Gallery and Production Society. She also dabbled in creating films – something that she starting pursuing more seriously after creating the short film Pulled Strings four years ago.
The six-minute Pulled Strings shows the making of hand-pulled noodles alongside a dramatic orchestral string performance. The process is something that is often on display for diners at places such as Calgary’s Calan Beef Noodle. In this case, she filmed her uncle and his daughter working together to pull the noodles.
“A fellow filmmaker told me to just film what I love,” she says. “I love food and I love my family and culture so I figured why not combine the two together.
“Visually and conceptually, there were a lot of themes that tied in really well together. The strings melded with the noodles, while the instruments and music reflected the father-daughter relationship.”
Pulled Strings had its premiere at Devour! The Food Film Fest in 2018 in Nova Scotia and went on to screen at various festivals around the world, including the Seoul International Film Festival later that year and Sonoma International Film Festival in 2019. Ms. Van Chau has released other works since, including Paper Lantern, a profile of a family-run local Vietnamese speakeasy-concept restaurant in Calgary’s Chinatown.
Hearth of the Lion premiered at the Calgary International Film Festival earlier this fall and is the official follow-up to Pulled Strings. The film went on to screen at the Edmonton Short Film Festival and Toronto Food Film Festival as well as Devour!
Building off the approach of merging art and food, the new film features the chef of Calgary’s Kam Han Szechuan House preparing its signature chili crab pot dish, mixed with visuals of traditional Chinese lion-dance performers. Footage of both the dance and food preparation are spliced together and, at times, overlayed until the two are nearly in sync.
Ms. Van Chau says the fiery colours – from the flame under the wok but also the red and orange hues of the crab itself – alongside the lion-dance costumes make for a perfect pairing.
She says she hopes her films help Chinese-Canadians feel recognized while also introducing a wider audience to the culture and food.
“Representation in the media is so important,” she says, “Not only are you reaching out to audiences that see themselves and make them feel proud of their own identities, you are providing an accessible way for audiences to be introduced to these cultures … and what more accessible way to learn about a culture than through food?”
Ms. Van Chau is currently wrapping up a short documentary highlighting Yolkless Press, a Calgary-based printing company with a penchant for culinary visuals. As well, her follow-up to this year’s Hearth of the Lion is in preproduction and will focus on a unique combination of Chinese opera and dim sum.
“Food can be such a wonderful canvas for colours, shapes and textures to collide,” explains the filmmaker. “That’s what’s so inspiring for a filmmaker like me and why film festivals like Devour! are so popular. We can all relate to the stories being told because everyone has a relationship with food in some way.”