A Roadside Banquet
An eleven years old Chinese girl turns into a feather duster at her baby brother's first birthday party, soon after learning her parents only ever wanted a boy.
Interview with Writer/Director Peiqi Peng
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
When I was in elementary school, my parents were seriously considering having another child. I was very against it. One day at a restaurant, trying to convince me, my mom told me the day she birthed me, my father was so disappointed I was a girl, he couldn’t talk for an hour. She said it so casually, but I immediately came to tears, and it changed my relationship with my father forever. For a very long time, Chinese families were banned to test the gender of their unborn baby, because many of them will take an abortion over having a girl as their only child. It felt like I might not be born if they knew I was a girl.
As the One Child policy loosens in the 2010s, many Chinese families chose to have another child, and the majority of those born were boys. An entire generation of Chinese girls had a very young baby brother when they were teenagers or adults. Many of these girls were expected to take care of their baby brothers for the rest of their lives.
A Roadside Banquet is a story about them, and every child who seeks the unconditional love that their parents can no longer give. Underneath the joyfulness of the banquet and the magical twist of the duster is a story about being a girl—and sometimes, being overlooked and sidelined. Minimized into a supporting role, into domesticity, into something as unremarkable as a feather duster.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
It’s a surrealist family drama that blends wholesome, slice-of-life family moments with a girl turning into a feather duster. It should be a fun watch for anyone interested in genre-bending works. There are jokes in there, the mood is always light, but underneath is a dark story, so one can laugh and also maybe cry while watching.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
As I mentioned above, a big part of the story is about the unconditional love a child seeks from their family. What happens when you believe your parents do not love you just for who you are, and their love for you is conditional? I think this subject can evoke emotions and thoughts in all of us, no matter which part of the world we are from.
Also, more specifically, this story is about how it feels to be a woman in modern-day China and the common expectations that come with that. Mai, the protagonist, constantly receives comments about her looks, weight, interest, and of course, her role in the family.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Initially, I simply wanted to make a story about a person that turns into an object. Then I remembered the incident mentioned above with my family at dinner when I was eleven. And I decided to combine these two stories together.
The script came to me very quickly and I finished the first draft over a weekend. The script never really had any drastic change, all the revisions were primarily trims and dialogue tweaks. I think it's important not to overdevelop a short film script, as I think for narrative short the simpler is usually the better.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
We feel very fortunate that we've received many warm and kind words from people who watched the film. People seem to be really connected to the journey of Mai and Sarah's amazing performance as her. It's particularly heart-warming when we hear people who have siblings telling us they find the dynamic of the siblings to be authentic. It's always a relief for me to hear that because I'm an only child and was writing based on imagination.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
What surprised me was the amount of young Chinese women that told me they heard the exact same things from their parents, about how (the parents) were disappointed that they birthed a girl. I thought it was a singular event that happened to me, but it seems more like generational trauma.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
The dream for us as filmmakers is always to connect with as many people as we can through our works. We love any chance for more audience to discover our film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Fortunately, We have been on a great festival run and have taken the film to four continents with more than a dozen festivals and some more down the road. So now we are reaching a point where we start thinking about distribution for the film’s eventual online release. We would love to find distributors to talk to and journalists to chat so we can put this film in front of a wider audience.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
I want people to feel like this film is a balance of craft and emotions. I hope when people come out of the theater after watching this film, they can say they watched something that was carefully done with great production value, but also has a heart and is something they can respond to emotionally.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Do you think Mai decided she wanted to turn into a feather duster, or was she forced by some unknown force into that transformation?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Our team are still constantly collaborating with each other, but all of us are also looking for freelance work both in the narrative and commercial space.
Interview: July 2023
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
A Roadside Banquet
An eleven years old Chinese girl turns into a feather duster at her baby brother's first birthday party, soon after learning her parents only ever wanted a boy.
Length: 16:03
Director: Peiqi Peng
Producer: Ziqi Gao
Writer: Peiqi Peng
About the writer, director and producer:
PEIQI PENG is a Chinese writer/director living in Los Angeles, with a BFA in Film & Post-Colonial Studies from Emerson College and an MFA in Directing from the American Film Institute. A child fantasy writer that later studied Sociology, Peiqi does socially conscious female dramas with fantasy, gore, and absurdist elements.
Key cast: Sarah Zhai (Mai)
Looking for: distributors, sales agents, buyers
Instagram: @a_roadside_banquet
Website: www.aroadsidebanquet.com
Other: IMDb