SFIAAFF: Saving Face
NAATA must be so proud of the great opening night screening of Saving Face at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. There was a big crowd outside the Castro Theater as we arrived, and as we entered the theater we were disconcerted by all the folks who seemed to be reserving seats for others. Then, we realized that we were being total rubes, and that the "purses" in the theater chairs were actually gift bags! SFist has hit the big time, folks, and y'all are here to witness it.
We had barely finished pawing through our wares (Pad Thai mix! Toothpaste! Febreeze! And much, much more!) when event emmcee Emerald Yeh, whom we miss every time we watch the news, took the stage to kick off the festival with introductions of several of the people responsible for the festival and the director of the film, Alice Wu.
Thanks to Mai Le for the invitations to both the screening and party and Chris Wiggum of Larsen Associates PR for making all our SFIAAFF coverage possible.
After some initial confusion over the proper lens for the movie, we were off on a great ride. Saving Face was a hilarious and touching movie that we want to force everyone we know to watch (which we just might do when it is screened again in San Francisco on June 3). EssEff's own Joan Chen stars as the single mother of a semi-closeted adult lesbian, who becomes unexpectedly pregnant with her second child at age 48, and exposes a comedic side we've rarely seen her exhibit. Kicked out of her parents' house for the scandal, she moves in with her daughter, med-school resident Wil (an intense and considered Michelle Krusiec), who is beginning a relationship with dancer Vivian (luminous Lynn Chen). Those are the only plot details we're going to give up, because we want all of you to go see this film when it screens again.
OK, so Asian lesbians, right? It sounds like a pretty specific kind of film to relate to, but it's not at all. In the Q&A post film, Wu addressed this potential misperception of how specialized the audience for this film might be by saying "If I can just get people into the theater, I know I have a shot at winning anyone over." We agree, and feel the themes of the film are universal--struggling to fulfill the demands of your social group, fear of intimacy and loss of independence, and loving your parents. Who can't understand these conflicts, which Wu depicts with a humorous and gravely unfaltering eye? In the Q&A post film, Wu addressed just this issue of audience relatability, in saying "if I can mold people into relating to people who don't look like them, I've done my job."
Other highlights of the post-film Q&A were the comments from several Asian lesbians in the audience, including a couple seated right behind us who received applause for describing themselves as married (have we mentioned how much we love living here?), the eternally glamorous Joan Chen's revelation that she convinced Wu to cast her as a 48-year-old mother by sending her the worst photos she could find of herself, and Wu's desccibing a conversation she had with her mother, where she said "You know, when your friends see this movie they'll know why I'm not married. My mom said 'Yes, it will be hard, but if this is what you want, this is what I want for you.'" (We totally got misty as we typed that.)
To use a dumb cliche (and not for the first time, as everyone who reads our writing will attest to), there was a lot of love in that room. As we looked around at the glowing faces gathering their gift bags and heading out to the opening night party, we felt truly privileged to be a part of the evening.