About « Le temps des mots » by Samia Ferhat

Bridging the Strait tells the story of 10 Chinese and Taiwanese students who participated in a workshop from 2009 to 2010. This workshop “Cross-Strait Dialogue on Cinema” (Dialogue sino-taïwanais autour du cinema) was organized by Samia Ferhat as part of her research activities within the Research center on modern and contemporary China (EHESS-CNRS).

The workshop’s goal was to start a dialogue between young people from two societies separated by decades of political antagonism and threatened by the risk of military escalation. After 6 months of meetings and discussions, the students wished to continue their exchange by producing a documentary, which allowed them to present this dialogue experience, and to further the confrontation of their ideas.
This film reviews the history of the relations between China and Taiwan, by means of archival images and original illustrations, while also allowing the students to voice, openly and without taboo, the problems of identity, politics and memory inherent in the dynamics of these relations. It also raises the question of the efficiency of dialogue, which can create a common space for exchange and interaction, despite often involving misunderstandings and tensions…