Reviews & Quotes | Hidden Letters

Educational Media Reviews Online | Reviewed by Catherine Michael, Communications & Legal Studies Librarian, Ithaca College
"The film is highly recommended to those interested in international cultures, women’s studies, writing, and Chinese history."

Gloria Steinem
"A deep and wonderful rebellion."

Cherry Picks
"Fascinating... culminating in a powerful resonance that lingers."

The Black Cape Mag | Jonita Davis
"A magnificent portrait of women in China."

Documentary Magazine | Patricia Aufderheide
"Hidden Letters is an extraordinary film: masterfully conceived, strategically designed and highly crafted."
"Feng and Qing give us an uncommented but highly pointed close-up look at the contradictory meanings of Nushu today, from the perspective of the women they follow. They capture some extraordinarily revelatory moments, which need no parsing. The female participants permit them to capture their vulnerability, their insecurity, their doubts."
"Feng, who took lead as director, doesn’t pick sides, or demonize anyone for reinforcing patriarchy. Instead, she shows how systems reinforce it and engage everyone in participation, even those trying to resist."

Film Book | Thomas Duffy
"Hidden Letters is a movie that holds the viewer captive for the duration of the film’s running time. We can only hope we’ve evolved as a society (and as a world) after viewing these experiences of some very distinguished ladies."

Alliance of Women Film Journalists | Marilyn Ferdinand
"It’s hard to know whether the language of nushu will survive; clearly, its soul is in peril as men intrude with their crass money-making schemes. Fortunately, we have Hidden Letters to help us remember the creativity to be found in women’s struggle for survival."

The Austin Chronicle | Mazzy Oliver Smallwood
"If there is such a thing as 'female gaze' within filmmaking, Feng has captured it."