you're from wallenberg, right?
posted by annie on 03.09.04 @ 06:18 PM PST
This afternoon's screening of Ching Ip's feature "See You Off To the Edge of Town" was part of the Schools at the Festival program. I think even if I hadn't been wearing a backpack today, we would have just got swept up into the stream of high school kids. "You're from Wallenberg, right? This way...." "Um, we're not from Wallenberg." "Oh, what school then?" "Uh, the school of hard knocks?" We couldn't stop giggling. Does this mean I can still use a youth pass on MUNI?
The students were all restless and midway through, the kids from Newcomer High up in the balcony completely stopped paying attention and kept on chattering despite shushes from the main floor. (I guess loving and true examinations of family dynamics aren't that interesting at age 15.) But given all my recent self-created family drama, Ip's story of a family on a roadtrip felt like the most honest and least trite portrayal of an Asian family I've seen yet. The eldest daughter's evasiveness about her personal life, but desire for recognition. The mom loudly praising her youngest's ex-boyfriend in front of the current one. The father's betrayal. And the ending, we all agreed, was perfect.
Then we stole one NAATA staff member off for beer in paper bags on the Peace Plaza.
