Interview: Alice Wu

Name
Alice Wu

Introduce yourself in one sentence
My life is kind of boring, but my films are kind of fun

Age and Occupation
35, filmmaker

Home Town
San Jose

Do you have a favorite moment from post-film Q&As you've participated in?
I always love the people who are too shy to come up to you immediately, so they lurk around the edges until it's almost too late, and you're about to leave, and then all of a sudden, they lunge forward and say something usually in a breathless blurt. One of my favorites was a 15-year old boy from East LA who wanted to tell me how much the film made him realize he loved growing up in his Mexican family. I loved that. And then there was the moment at Sundance when I looked up and ten lesbians were taking pictures of me on their cell phones. That's when I knew I had truly arrived.

When (and why) did you leave the Bay Area, where have you lived since, and do you ever consider moving back?
I guess I've lived here for my most of my childhood, all the way up through college and grad school. I left in 1992 for a job in Seattle. I spent the next six years designing software and doing that herky-jerky dance toward adulthood that is one's 20's. Then in 1998, in a watershed WTF moment, I chucked everything and moved to Brooklyn to make my film (Saving Face). I've been in Brooklyn ever since.

I love New York, but I have definitely considered moving back. It's funny, this question comes up a lot now because everyone assumes I'm moving to LA. I know several filmmakers who've made their first films and are all now packing up for Hollywood. Maybe it's my native NoCal bias, but I don't see myself doing the same. There's something almost too facile about LA, everyone is so laid back that perversely, I feel on edge. Oddly enough, I feel calm in New York. (Perhaps only in New York are all my fears justified.) For now, it's a good place to establish myself as a filmmaker. But at some point, I might get tired of the crazy pace and come home. I've always imagined growing old some place like Half Moon Bay. And I'd love to shoot here. For one thing, the light can be amazing.

At the SFIAAFF, you wore a tie to your screening at the opening night party. The next day, we were behind someone in line at the burrito place by our work, and she was talking about the party and screening, and she was wearing a tie, too! Since then we've seen a girl tie explosion in San Francisco, and we think you're responsible. Please respond to these charges.
Wow. I have a hard time imagining Bay Area fashionistas turning to me for inspiration, but thank you. Next time it's two in the morning and the writing is going poorly, I will think of this and be comforted. (I will not, however, be responsible for those chunky platform flip-flops. Whoever thought those up must be killed.)

What are you working on next?
I am writing a couple things (one actually set in San Francisco) and reading
a lot of scripts. But I'm mostly looking forward to taking off for a couple
weeks to "re-Alice" myself, just get into the car with no plans and drive.

What is the best film festival to be in?
For the sheer joy of showing your film to an audience, I have to say that nothing beats a festival in San Francisco.

Favorite website
www.zefrank.com
(Be sure to check out "My Advice to You")

Favorite local business
Mitchell's ice cream.

What I'm currently Reading
I'd love to list something that would make me seem like a member of the intelligensia, but these days, I'm mostly reading scripts and blogs (wonkette) and airline magazines.

Best Deal in San Francisco
The sunset from virtually anywhere.

Favorite mode of transportation
The ferries.

Best Band or Musician to come out of the Bay Area
Journey. I admit it. Whenever "Lights" comes on my ipod, I get all misty. Also, my high school marching band (Los Altos High). We were sort of a b-list band, but I vaguely remember us bringing the house down with Lionel Richie's "All Night Long", and that can't have been easy.

Favorite local hangout
Back in grad school: Antonio's Nut House (Mountain View). Nowadays, I like to write in Macondo (the café next to the 16th Street Hotel in the Mission).

SF has the BEST:
Potlucks.

You've never lived in SF until:
You've frozen your butt off living in one of those beautiful Victorians.

Now that Gavin Newsom is single, who are you going to set him up with?
Not sure. But if I weren't out, he would make a great beard.

You can tell someone is a local here IF:
They dress in layers.

SF would be soooo much better if only:
We still had the drive-in theater in Redwood City.

Best Restaurant:
Ti Couz in the Mission, or Koi Palace in Daly City

Best movie scene filmed in or about SF:
Harold and Maude: the scene where they rescue the tree.

Favorite author to come out of the bay area:
John Steinbeck

Place you always tell visitors to check out:
The Castro Theater

Favorite Bridge in the area:
Golden Gate. Do people really name others?

You have two hours and $15 bucks to kill in SF, what are you going to do?
Back in college, I'd come up to the city with a friend and have elevator races in the glass elevators of the St. Francis (the ones on the outside). He'd get in one, I'd get in the other, and we would take bets as to who could get to the top first. I'd love to do that again. Any takers?

I have found/sold/bought the following on craigslist:
I've never actually completed a transaction on craigslist, but once - in a moment of unbridled optimism - I did post a "missed connection".

I want all the SFists out there to know:
San Franciscans are optimists. It's what I love the most about them.

Tell us a San Francisco Story:
I have very fond memories of the Top of the Fairmont where I experienced my first buffet, and then afterwards - bloated and happy - I fell asleep watching my parents dance in the Tonga Room. In memory, there is something very old-school Ernst Lubitsch romantic about it all.

Question you'd ask if you were doing this interview:
Why are you doing this interview?

Because the SFist people were insanely nice to me during the NAATA screening, and because I'm hoping at least some of their readers will go see my film Saving Face, opening in the SF Bay Area on June 3 (Landmark Embarcadero, UA Stonestown, Landmark Shattuck/Berkeley, Palo Alto Square, etc.) How we do on opening weekend helps seal the fate of how long the film plays and whether it opens in more cities. So please turn out on the weekend of June 3!