Letter to Celestial is a re-animation and re-imagination of archival documents found in the search for Asian sex workers in Montréal's Chinatown and historic Red Light District.
Lettre Pour Céleste est une animation et une réinterprétation d'archives découvertes lors de recherches sur les travailleuses du sexe asiatiques dans le quartier chinois et le quartier historique du Red Light de Montréal.
Directed by
Wawa Li & Sinéad O’Halloran
Written by
Sinéad O’Halloran & Wawa Li
Alex Tigchelaar
Produced by
Palimpsex Productions
Executively Produced by
Wawa Li & Sinéad O’Halloran
Visuals by
Sinéad O’Halloran
Wawa Li
Edit/ Animation by
Wawa Li
Narration
English version by
Sinéad O’Halloran
Jessica Lieu
Chinese version by
Anna Long
Researched by
Les Flaneuses
Alex Tigchelaar
Wawa Li
Sinéad O’Halloran
ADR Recording
Josh Boguski
Luke Graves
Sound Mastering by
Andres Solis
Soundtrack by
misha already
Sound Effect
Josh Boguski
Jacob Sexsmith
Consultant
Elene Lam
Chinese translation by
Anna Long
Cinematography by
Wawa Li
Actress
Zoya Khan
Costume
Wawa Li
Set Assistant
Angela Sanabaria
Archival excerpts from
Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec
Allô Police newspaper
Archives de Montréal
newspapers.com
Research material courtesy of
Alex Tigchelaar
Special thanks to
All of our community conslutants,
Stella L’Amie de Maimie
Butterfly: Migrants and Asian Sex Workers Network
Cabaret LaPerle
& anyone who contributed to this research
♥ We thank our friends,
family & comrades ♥
PALIMPSEX PRODUCTIONS
Funded by Neighbourhood Action Center – Quartier Chinois en Résistance, Stella L’Amie de Maimie, and CSU Concordia.
What does it mean to search for the stories that are safest in the dark?
About the Research Collective
Les Flâneuses are Alex Tigchelaar, Wawa Li and Sinéad O’Halloran. As historians, researchers, and visual artists, their collective work critically engages with publicly archived evidence of criminalized women in the urban environment. They produce multidisciplinary projects like films, ‘zines, performances, podcasts, and scholarship that reframe these encounters with institutionalized violence, stigma and surveillance to highlight acts of resistance and daring.
★ Members
Alex Tigchelaar is a researcher and activist whose focus is on sex work and the right to the city in Montreal from 1869 to present day. She is the creator and host of the podcast Nous Sommes Toujours Là and is currently completing her PhD at Concordia University.
Wawa Li has a background in Computational Arts and has been involved in grassroots housing rights, anti-carceral justice, and community organizing in Chinatown through digital art and filmmaking.
Sinéad O’Halloran is a public historian and multidisciplinary artist focused on histories of direct action, zine making, and secrecy as method, alongside involvement in union organizing and sex workers rights.
Contact : wanhuali2000@gmail.com
instagram: @thecelestials_doc
C.V
★ Independant Research Projects
Red Light District x Chinatown Project
research report, Neighbourhood Action Centre – Quartier Chinois en Résistance (NAC-QCR) (September 2025 – December 2025)
Nous Somme Toujours Là
podcast, produced by Stella L’amie de Maimie as part of La Ville Extraordinaire (Concordia - COHDS) (June 2025 – September 2025) accessible at https://www.noussommestoujoursla.com/
★ Panels & Screenings
Community Archiving: Preserving our Collective Histories, panel, as part of the programming of By and For: 30 Years of Sex Worker Resistance, MEM - Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises, Montréal (March 2026)
Letter to Celestial, a short film by Wawa Li and Sinéad O’Halloran, presented at Cabaret La Perle (30th Anniversary celebration of Stella L’amie de Maimie), MEM - Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises, Montréal (January 2026)
“Nous Somme Toujours Là: An archival research team discussion about police intervention in the Red Light District”, panel, Defund Fest 2025, Montréal (September 2025)
★ Creative Work
“Your Condo was a Whorehouse”, article, R.C.M.P. (Resistance Chinatown Mob Project) Substack (April 2026), accessible at https://resistancechinatownmobproject.substack.com/p/your-condo-was-a-whorehouse.
"Letter to Celestial", a short film by Wawa Li and Sinéad O’Halloran, produced in partnership with Butterfly, Migrant and Asian Sex Worker Support Network (January 2026).
Nous Sommes Toujours Là: A Cheeky Archival Zine, zine (September 2025).