HIGHLY RECOMMENDED - Educational Media Reviews Online | SPECIAL JURY AWARD FOR DOCUMENTARY FEATURE - Lighthouse International Film Festival | GOLDEN KAPOL AWARD (BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE) - Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival
Aging • Elderly Care • Dementia Care • Social Work • Mental Health • China
Date of Completion: 2015 | Run Time: 88 minutes | Language: Shanghai dialect with English subtitles | Captions: No | Includes: Transcript | Director: Zhao Qing | Producer: Violet Du Feng | Executive Producer: Jean Tsien
Former school principal 88-year-old Lou has had Alzheimer’s for the last 10 years. She now recognizes almost no one except for her husband Feng. Nonetheless, they live a full and happy life in Shanghai. They practice tai chi every morning, make regular visits to the Peking opera and read poetry to one another. But when Feng himself gets sick, he decides it’s time for them to move into a retirement home. They have almost no one else to care for them; their only son lives in Australia and visits sporadically. The transition from hectic city to rural rest home takes a heavy toll on them both. The subjects of filmmaker Qing Zhao’s tender portrait are her own great uncle and aunt, whom she followed for three years. She was witness to the unbreakable bond between the couple, and devotes much of her attention to the remarkable history of their love. Feng married Lou when she was 42 years old, following the death of his first wife. Together they survived the Cultural Revolution, during which Feng was denounced and sent far away to Sichuan. As an old Chinese saying goes, “Hold his hand to grow old together.” PLEASE REMEMBER ME perfectly encapsulates these words.
Educational Media Reviews Online | Reviewed by Bryan J. Sajecki, University at Buffalo
Highly Recommended "Please Remember Me is a very emotional film, as viewers can connect with the pain and sorrow related to not being able to fix a situation for someone they care for."
AWARDS
Golden Kapol Award (Best Documentary Feature) | Guangzhou International Documentary Film Festival
Special Jury Award for Documentary Feature | Lighthouse International Film Festival
Director and Producer of HIDDEN LETTERS, Producer of PLEASE REMEMBER ME
Director and Producer of THE DATING GAME
Violet Du Feng is an Emmy and Peabody-winning independent documentarian, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, and a 2024 Chicken and Egg Awardee. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and an adjunct professor at the Journalism School of Columbia University. Violet directed and produced THE DATING GAME, which premiered at 2025 Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Competition and won the Best International Director at Doc Edge Film Festival. The film has been widely acclaimed throughout over 20 film festivals around the world. She directed and produced the 2023 Oscar Shortlisted, Peabody and Emmy nominated HIDDEN LETTERS which premiered in competition at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, followed by twelve international festival awards and broadcast distributions in more than 15 countries. She directed PBS/CPB special program Harbor from the Holocaust with music performed by Yo-Yo Ma.
She has directed, produced, and executive produced 13 documentaries. Her producing credits include Night of Night (2024), which premiered in competition at CPH:DOX; Dear Mother, I Meant to Write About Death (2022), which received a Special Mention at Busan International Film Festival; Singing in the Wilderness (2021), a nominee for the Golden Alexander Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival; Confucian Dream (2019), winner of a Special Jury Award at Karlovy Vary International Festival and the Chinese Academy Award of Documentary Film; Mainland (2017), winner of a Special Jury Award at SXSW and PLEASE REMEMBER ME (2015), winner of three awards at GZDocs with a successful theatrical release and impact campaign in China that resulted in policy changes. The film was awarded DocImpactHi5 of 2019.
Violet started her career as a co-producer on the critically acclaimed 2007 Sundance Special Jury winner Peabody and Emmy winner Nanking, which was distributed theatrically around 30 countries throughout the world, and was the highest-grossing documentary in China. Violet produces the forthcoming film Running With the Prime Minister. Violet has served as advisor for Sundance Non-Fiction Producing Lab, HotDocs Blue Ice Docs Fund and Chicken and Egg (Egg)ccelerated Lab. She is a consulting programmer for Shanghai International Film Festival. Born in Shanghai and based in New York, Violet holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Fudan University and received her MFA in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley.
Speaking History
Columbia University - Taught documentary filmmaking
School of Visual Arts - Taught documentary filmmaking
Other schools I've talked to: UC Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford, NYU, Cornell College, Hong Kong University, Oxford University, University of Iowa, University of Colorado, Rowan University and many more.
I've presented my films at UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, NCORE Educational Conference, International Documentary Association, Asia Society, China Institute, National Committee on US-China Relations. I have also been on NPR, ABCNews, iRadio, PBS to talk about my films.
Expertise
I am an experienced educator, currently an adjunct professor at Columbia University, and I have also taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York. While many of my films explore subjects rooted in China, they resonate globally and often spark meaningful conversations with audiences unfamiliar with the country. Having spent the first half of my life in China and the second in the United States, I bring both an insider’s insight and an outsider’s perspective. In addition to being a documentary filmmaker, I remain a journalist at heart, dedicating hours each day to researching China-related issues. Through my talks, I aim to challenge stereotypes and build understanding, engaging with themes of gender, human relationships, and contemporary Chinese identity.