Our Happy Birth Day
Anais, an aromatherapist, lives a natural and holistic lifestyle and refuses modern medicine. At the local theater, she plays an expectant mother who is forced to have a C-section in order to deliver the baby during an auspicious time. On stage, she screams “Giving birth is not an illness, I don’t want a C-section!” But in real life Anais is faced with the possibility of having a C-section due to the baby’s malposition. Anais’ wish to have home birth gets slimmer and slimmer with time.
Daisy, a mother of two girls, welcomes a third baby with home birth. With many relatives and friends as witness, she births her first son. Sadly, three months later her son passes away from a rare disease. Through the valley of the shadow of death, she decides to becomes a doula and readies herself to welcome a new life once again.
Anais and Daisy meet a midwife, a dying profession in Taiwan, and have a new understand of life and death. Since then, they’ve chosen a birthing process that is differently from 99% of the women in Taiwan.
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Yu-Ching CHENDirector
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Angel Yu-Ting SUDirector
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Angel Yu-Ting SUProducer
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Project Title (Original Language):祝我好好孕
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Project Type:Documentary
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Runtime:1 hour 20 minutes 18 seconds
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Completion Date:October 6, 2018
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Production Budget:80,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Taiwan
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Country of Filming:Taiwan
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Language:Mandarin Chinese
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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2018 Busan International Film Festival
October 8, 2018
World Premiere
Wide Angle Competition Section -
2019 Taiwan International Ethnographic Film FestivalTaipei
Taiwan
Closing Film -
2019 Hong Kong International Documentary Festival
Chinese Doc Competition
Distribution Information
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SWALLOW WINGS FILMS CO. LTD.Sales AgentCountry: WorldwideRights: All Rights
Yu-Ching CHEN is an independent documentary filmmaker who studied filmmaking at Cinécréatis in Nantes, France. She focuses her works and films on human rights, human plight, and environmental issues.
Yu-Ting SU is an independent documentary filmmaker with a bachelor‘s degree in journalism. Su believes that every household has a family album, which captures the most important moments of life; and every society’s family album is documentary films, which tells the stories of its people in anticipation for all to see.
Yu-Ting SU：
People often say that making a documentary is like giving birth: you need to go through a long and painful waiting period, deliberating every clip repeatedly in order to finally deliver a good film. As I was working round-the-clock on my last documentary, the desire to become a mother came to me. I asked my friends about their birthing experience, and most said their experiences were painful. I started to wonder whether giving birth must be a painful experience? However, once I got to know Yu-Ching, my directing partner, who is passionate and knowledgeable about birthing rights; Daisy, who treats birthing like a great party; and Anais, who strongly adheres to vaginal birth, the seed of this documentary was then implanted.
Yu-Ching CHEN：
For me giving birth should be a collaborative process, much like working on a film. Even though working with Yu-Ting will be my first time co-directing, however, this collaboration is quite natural for me as it’s similar to the relationship between an expectant mother and a midwife. Through this film, we encourage and empower each other, as well as engender self-awareness. Yu-Ting became a mother this year, which allow for us to have a greater inner connection with our subjects. While the film may be about giving birth, but the core value is about the meaning of life and death.