This week’s photo theme is: Director’s Seat. Last month, well-known (male) Chinese film director Ding Taisheng made a controversial statement on Sina Weibo to the effect that “women can be great producers, but rarely directors.” (That’s a paraphrase from memory — his Weibo account, which had over 140,000 followers, has since been deleted.) In response, this week we’ll take a look behind the camera at the work of a few exemplary female filmmakers in China, past and present.

Ann Hui is a filmmaker based in Hong Kong. Born to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother in 1947, she has put out a diverse range of works via both film and television. Her unique exploration of individual “common people” living in the forgotten places of Hong Kong is often hauntingly touching, especially in later works such as A Simple Life (2012) and The Way We Are (2008).

Cover image: MutantEggplant