Five Chinese Canadians return to their elementary school to reclaim their names through dance.

Director - Rosie Choo Pidcock

The Body of My Name is an expression of my love for both Chinese characters and dance. Both of these things saved me during the pandemic - physically, financially and spiritually.

Teaching Mandarin reawakened my love of writing Chinese characters - a part of me that began as a seven year old in Chinese school (but I played it off cause we were supposed to hate that shit!!!) and deepened during my years living in Beijing. I've been on a journey with my biracial Chinese identity and my Chinese name my whole life, I wanted to create a space for other Chinese Canadians to connect over their names. Many of our cast members learned or relearned how to write their names through the making of this film which makes me really happy and proud as a filmmaker and as an artist. Rehearsal and set were places of non-judgement, love, learning and community. The group choreo and group chalk writing at the end sums this up perfectly.

The Body Of My Name is my first time working with a choreographer and creating a dance music video. The track was custom composed by Eimear MacCarrick based on a mish-mash of references I provided her, including LCD Soundsystem, Cut Copy, Daft Punk, Tegan and Sara and Florence and the Machine. We loved playing with childhood instruments like the xylophone and creating something that had a sick beat and a strong build.

We shot this film in a single day, a beautiful sunny Sunday in the early Fall. This was my "every thing else is stuck in development, I just gotta make SOMETHING" film of 2022 :) It features Jen Tong (CBC's Fakes) and Kallie Hu (Paramount's Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies), two powerhouse double threats that gave generously of their enthusiasm and creativity to put this together.

I hope you get up and twerk to this!! We sure did!!