Film Captures Parent’s Determination to Support 2e Daughter

A young girl begins school in a new class. The group is asked to recite words written on the board, and, in near unison, do so. The teacher calls on individual students to read and write what’s on the board. Several can. The girl cannot. Instead, she writes what many might consider nonsense. The class laughs at the girl as her mother, who works as a custodian at the school, secretly observes through the window. Thus begins the film Confetti, our window into the lives of a mother and her twice-exceptional child who has dyslexia. The film, written and directed by Ann Hu, is inspired by her journey with her own 2e daughter, Michelle. In the film, Lan (mother) and MeiMei (daughter) live in China, where Hu is from. They run up against barriers created by a Chinese education system that isn’t necessarily equipped to support children with learning challenges. After nine-year-old MeiMei (Harmonie He) demonstrates an ability to read and speak English, a visiting American teacher identifies her as likely being dyslexic but also gifted. He says she learns in a way that’s different from others. “The brains of some people are just wired differently,” he says. The use of that language in particular — “wired differently” — clearly resonates with parents and educators of twice-exceptional children. It’s just one of many moments with which those who support 2e kids can identify. Lan (Zhu Zhu) shares her daughter’s apparent dyslexia diagnosis with her boss, the principal of the school. His response: “Is it contagious?” Hu explained to 2e News that part of the Mandarin word for dyslexia sounds similar to the word for “poisonous.” With that, dyslexia “sounds like a poisonous condition!” It’s a humorous but likely frustratingly familiar moment for parents of gifted and 2e learners — and for the students themselves, who are eager to learn and participate. After finding limited options in China, Lan decides to move with her daughter to New York, leaving her husband and job in search of a better education and life for her daughter. And that is the crux of this understated, enjoyable film. It’s an examination of the challenges 2e children face when lacking support, and the sometimes Herculean lengths parents will go to provide them with a better learning environment. “One good thing about the relationship of mother and daughter is you don’t have to explain the motivation of the mother,” said Hu, adding that she had never heard of dyslexia when her daughter was diagnosed. “It’s understandable why a mother would go to the world’s end to help her children.” Hu herself moved to the United States in 1979, eventually becoming a U.S. citizen. But after enrolling her daughter in a school back in China, it became clear that her daughter needed support Hu believed the Chinese education system could not provide. So Hu moved them back to the United States to seek out better special-education services. From that point on, most of the challenges faced by MeiMei in the film represent actual experiences Hu’s daughter faced in American schools. One such instance found MeiMei trying to read Charlotte’s Web with the rest of her class. Her teacher instead gives her a picture book. When MeiMei protests, the teacher replies that Charlotte’s Web is “for kids who can read. They made a mistake putting you here.” MeiMei subsequently is moved to an ESL class, which, predictably, also fails to address her needs.

When MeiMei struggles with a geometry-related homework assignment, the family’s American host Helen (Amy Irving) reads the directions to her. MeiMei immediately understands and easily completes the assignment, showing a clear aptitude for the subject when the method of instruction is altered to meet her needs. “Every parent that I run into with children in a similar situation is going through sort of the same struggle,” said Hu, who emphasized that many teachers and administrators she encountered were good people who genuinely were trying to help. “[Parents face] the same challenges and [deal with] not understanding how to make it work.” Lan’s character can’t read and was ostracized herself as a child. Her parents paid for tutors but she was kicked out of school. While these aspects of her character do not reflect Hu’s upbringing, the challenges Lan faces as an immigrant are drawn from Hu’s own experiences. In the film, Lan attempts to “make it work” by earning a living as an undocumented worker at multiple jobs, battling with school officials, finding ways to obtain and pay for a neuropsych evaluation, and relentlessly petitioning administrators at another school for a spot for admission. “There are certain things that mothers are just super stubborn about,” said Hu, whose first film, Shadow Magic, earned multiple awards — including a ​​Golden Rooster, China’s equivalent of an Academy Award. “They just keep on going, keep on going, keep on going, keep on going.” Hu gives that stubbornness some credit in that it led to not only finding support for her daughter, but for successfully completing the film itself. “I guess you can see (the results) in real life,” she said. “It worked out!” MeiMei eventually enrolls in a school better equipped to support 2e and 3e learners. Lan attends a student showcase, which includes MeiMei’s mastery of five key words in English. Lan can’t understand how that is seen as sufficient progress and states, not for the first time, that she just wants her daughter to be normal. “None of the children here will be normal,” the teacher responds, “but she is capable of extraordinary things.” Lan later says, “The school teaches in strange ways.” That applies both to MeiMei and to Hu’s daughter. For Hu, one example was her daughter being taught critical thinking and debate as a third-grader. One side would argue, for example, that junk food should be included in vending machines, and the other side would take the opposite point of view. “The natural consequence is that they all become terribly independent and have this critical thinking habit — now my daughter argues with me about everything. I absolutely resent that!” Hu jokes. “But if you think critically and find your own way of thinking … away from the norms, that’s the beginning of creativity, because any creation is a departure from the norm.” The school supports MeiMei’s gifts in geometry, graphics, and design and MeiMei makes use of these talents by using computer software to create a video for her mother, tracing their journey across the globe. “I will help you to see,” MeiMei tells Lan. “You will fly with me and we will see the world.” At this point Lan accepts that MeiMei isn’t “normal” — nor is she herself. She says to her daughter, “Who wants to be normal?!”

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Hu’s daughter, now a teenager who is an online content creator, saw the film at its premiere this summer and told Hu she liked it and was touched by it. But the film’s impact went further. “That night she said, ‘Now I feel I understand you, (what it’s been) like for you all these years,’” Hu said. “I figured what she was trying to say was that she was only able to see things from her own eyes and it was her only experience, so for the first time she saw things from my eyes, from the mother’s eyes, and she understood me much more. … It’s now so much easier for us to connect.” And if her daughter were to make a film about her experiences? “I would see things through her eyes and I would be able to understand her more,” Hu said, “and that would be a gift.” Visit https://www.confettifilm.com/film for more information on the film, future screenings, and opportunities to host a viewing.