Shades of Silk (2K Restoration) & Shorts
Filmmaker in Focus: Mary Stephen • UK Premiere • Q&A
26 Sept 2026 (Sat) | 20:20 | Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)
Shades of Silk (Ombres de Soie) 絲之影
Canada, France | 1978 | Colour | 62’
In Cantonese, Mandarin and French with English and French subtitles
Dir.: Mary Stephen 雪美蓮
Mary Stephen’s first directorial feature portrays the entangled relationship between Lysanne (Alexandria Brouwer) and Marlène (Stephen), who’ve known each other since school in Shanghai. Tension between the two young Asian women escalates as they separate and migrate in adulthood. Stephen shot the film in Paris at the age of 24 with a minuscule budget and a small crew.
Inspired by the work of Marguerite Duras, the film is a homage as well as a counterpoint to India Song, which centres its story on the wife of the French ambassador to India. Also set in the 1930s, Shades of Silk shares the hypnotic quality of Duras’s film, with yearning brewing over the long shots, the melancholic refrains, and the discrepancy between the voice-over and the images, but this time the story comes from the other side of the colonial setting.
Followed by an in-person Q&A with Mary Stephen, moderated by Cici Peng.
Labyrinthe 迷宮
Canada | 1973 | B&W | 3’
No Dialogue
Dir.: Mary Stephen 雪美蓮
Made during Stephen’s student years in Montreal, Labyrinthe is an experimental short that explores dual cultural identities, cross-cutting the motions of two girls — one Asian, one Caucasian, doubles of each other except for their difference in race — moving through maze-like corridors.
A Very Easy Death 安詳辭世
Canada | 1975 | Colour | 8’
No Dialogue
Dir.: Mary Stephen 雪美蓮
Borrowing its title from Simone de Beauvoir’s book, Stephen’s A Very Easy Death is a meditation on grief and remembrance following her mother's passing.
The Great Canadian Puberty Rite 大加拿大成人禮
Canada | 1973 | Colour | 21’
In English with no subtitles
Dir.: Mary Stephen 雪美蓮
A travelogue of Stephen’s summer road trip across Canada at the end of her studies in Montreal, documenting an adventurous rite-of-passage.
