Congratulations to Dr. Mila Zuo, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies, on receiving a 2024 UBC Killam Research Fellowship! This fellowship supports faculty in pursuing full-time research during a recognized study leave.
Mila is currently working on Mongoloids, a research-creation film project that explores primary and intergenerational trauma resulting from large-scale political movements. This feature-length hybrid documentary draws on her family’s memories of persecution during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, bringing them into the present through interviews and dramatic re-enactments. Inspired by Bessel van der Kolk’s seminal book The Body Keeps the Score, the film investigates how creative re-enactment of painful memories can help subjects reclaim power, agency, and control over past experiences.
Congratulations, Mila—we look forward to seeing the final work!
Still image from documentary shoot of Mongoloids
