‘Life Is a Choice’: Filmmaker Lorrie Chang Questions Reincarnation

The film Ain’t Samsāra a Bitch takes the universal questions about the meaning of life and what happens after death, and adds another layer: If given the choice, would you come back to life?

A deep-seated belief in reincarnation has resonated around the world throughout human existence. But having a personal choice in the matter — as opposed to the fate of the universe or the command of a higher power — speaks directly to filmmaker Lorrie Chang’s beliefs.

“I feel like life is a choice,” she says during a phone call. “So why would the afterlife be any different?”

As hefty a concept it may be for a short film, the 10-minute movie (which screens Nov. 12 at the Great Star Theater in San Francisco’s Chinatown) is an excerpt from a longer script Chang hopes to produce in the near future. But even in short form, she packs a lot in.

By focusing in on the relationship between three generations of women, Chang uses candid conversations to highlight the heartbreak of family separation that often comes with immigration — while pushing audiences to think about their own life’s purpose.

Chang touches on the Buddhist beliefs of the Pure Land and reincarnation, or samsāra. She also explores the concept of “soul contracts,” the idea that we’re all sent to this plane of existence to help one another. Add it all up, Chang says, and it shows how truly interconnected we are as a people.

During an important scene in the film, Lo Ma, played by Jennifer Chia, turns to her daughter and says, “When we meet with other souls, we decide what we’ll help each other with on the School of Earth.” Holding a soul contract written on an unfurled scroll, Lo Ma continues, “Together, we learn the infinite ways of love.”

With spoken dialogue in Cantonese, and English subtitles, Chang’s film also subtly provides a window into her own upbringing, from her complicated relationship with her mother to her renewed connection to San Francisco’s Chinatown community.

The movie, directed by painter and filmmaker Ujjayini Sikha, stars Natalie Nakamine as Grace and Lucia Choi-Dalton (who also sits on KQED’s Board of Directors) as Chun Mei.

The Nov. 12 screening is part of a larger event called “Come Rest in the Middle,” a title derived from The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski, a Buddhist teacher and founder of the Zen Hospice Project.

In addition to a musical performance by Nic Hampton and a bilingual (Mandarin and English) poetry recital by Chun Yu, the evening includes a screening of Unsung Heroes: Zabrina Deng’s Chinatown Portrait Mission by Zabrina Deng, and blood vessel/ fragmented moon by 唄 Uta Tamate Weiss.

Chang, who will also perform poetry that evening, selected each part of the event to pair with the central themes in her film.

“It’s a deepening,” Chang says of her approach to curating the evening of storytelling. “If I’m going to offer something to you, I want it to have a little space to breathe, and a little room to contemplate.”

A multitalented creative, Chang was inspired by the award-winning film Everything Everywhere All At Once.

After enrolling in a fiction writing class, Chang penned her first script. Her work is a product of digging through her own “treasure chest” of experiences, she says, and trying to make sense of it.

“A film,” she reflects, “is just this thing that’s like your constant companion for years.” After taking time to grow her relationship with her mother and plan a trip to China to learn more about her father’s roots, she’s learned that in telling her own story, she can mold a broader tale.

“People say your first film is just you working through your own shit,” Chang says, noting that her goal is to tell stories that are universally digestible. While her movie, filmed largely in Chinatown, comes from the perspective of a Chinese-American woman, its ideas of life, death and the afterlife are bigger than race, gender or nationality.

“The differences that we feel with each other,” she says, in reference to the isms that separate people in society, “I want to shrink that.”

Her overarching goal, she says, is to zoom out from humanity. By metaphorically looking at Earth from the moon, or even further, she wants to understand our common connections.

“There’s something to all of it,” she says, alluding to the true meaning of life. “What is that?”

The short film ‘Ain’t Samsāra a Bitch’ premieres Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Great Star Theater (636 Jackson St., San Francisco). Tickets and more information here.