Imaginary Rescripting is an essay film that explores how imagination, which was originally conceived as a tool for psychological healing, can also be employed to fabricate collective memory and construct politicized "Others." Rooted in the therapeutic method of imagery rescripting, which seeks to alter one's perception of traumatic memory through guided fictional reinvention, the film extends this psychological framework into the broader context of cultural history and digital media.
The film brings together Qing-dynasty Dianshizhai pictorials, documentary interviews, and contemporary algorithmic aesthetics in order to examine how fiction and imagination have historically been used to reinforce ideological narratives. It further investigates the ways in which today's digital platforms continue this tradition by exploiting fragmented historical memory and visual projection, thereby mobilizing trauma as a political and affective force.
By observing processes such as deracination, historical dislocation, and algorithmic circulation, Imaginary Rescripting presents imagination as a contested space that exists within the tension between control and resistance, and between alienation and the possibility of symbolic healing. As history is continuously rewritten through image, narrative, and code, the film invites viewers to reflect on the ways in which both personal and collective pasts are mediated, manipulated, and potentially reimagined.