AFTER THE SNOWMELT

After her best friend died in the wilderness, the young filmmaker returned to the accident scene to honor the promise they once made. World premiered in the Burning Lights competition at Visions du Reel.

After the Snowmelt is a coming-of-age tale where youth grapple with the first profound loss. Filmmaker Yi-Shan’s best friends in high school, Chun and Yueh, were trapped in a Nepal cave for 47 days due to unseasonal snowfall. Chun died three days before Yueh’s rescue, leaving behind the wish that whoever survives must share their story. To honor this wish, Yi-Shan takes up the camera, accompanies Yueh to the mountains, and retraces Chun’s footsteps in Nepal. Her journey gradually overlaps with Chun’s, blurs the boundary between past and present, and finally converges at the same destination. When she reaches the CAVE, what awaits her there?