Director and Writer: Alice Wu
Run Time: 98 min.
Release Year: 2004
Starring: Joan Chen, Lynn Chen, Michelle Krusiec
In her 2004 directorial debut, writer/director Alice Wu was ahead of her time with this queer, Chinese American rom-com that focuses not only on the meet cute and budding romance between workaholic surgeon Wilhelmina “Wil” (Krusiec) and talented dancer Vivian (Chen), but also a scandal in their tight-knit Chinese community in Flushing, Queens, involving Wil’s mother, Hwei-Lan (Chen). It is as much a coming-out story as it is a diaspora story as the mother-daughter protagonists reckon with and reconcile the conventions of their community and their identities, dreams, and vulnerabilities. Although it didn’t garner significant mainstream Hollywood attention at the time as a lesbian rom-com with a nearly all Asian or Asian American cast, Saving Face has endured in the hearts of film watchers and filmmakers alike and established itself as a cornerstone to the ever-expanding queer Asian American canon today.
Snacks and beverages will be available, with both free and sliding-scale options.
Schedule:
1:30-2:00: show up, grab snacks and drinks, find a seat, chat with other attendees
2:00-3:45: Saving Face screening
3:45-4:45: post-film discussion for those interested to share anything that came up for you from the movie, feel free to head out any time
5:00: event ends
