Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to POV on August 31: WO AI NI (I LOVE YOU) MOMMY

Stephanie Wang-Breal’s moving debut film premiered at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival in March before claiming the US Feature Grand Jury Prize at Silverdocs in June.

WO AI NI follows the adoption of an initially shy and reserved Chinese eight-year-old, Fang Sui Yong, by a Long Island Jewish couple, who name her Faith. While Wang-Breal shows the young girl’s initial meeting with her adoptive mother Donna in China, the film spends over a year and half on Faith’s assimilation – made difficult by her complete lack of knowledge of English, and the adopted family’s similar ignorance of Mandarin or Cantonese. As the months pass, the audience witnesses Faith’s rapid transformation from a tantrum-throwing, culture-shocked child to a very self-aware American pre-teen, and sees both the troubling and heartening effects of transracial international adoption.

indieWIRE has a profile of director Stephanie Wang-Breal for their FUTURES column here.

Update: POV writes about the film here.

To find out more about the POV screening on PBS, click here.

Being released on DVD August 31: I THINK WE’RE ALONE NOW

Director Sean Donnelly’s disturbing and thought-provoking doc had its world premiere at the 2008 Slamdance Film Festival before screening in a number of other fests, including True/False, Fantastic Fest, and IDFA.

The film’s two subjects, Jeff, who has Asperger’s, and Kelly, who is intersexed, share a common obsession – ’80s pop star Tiffany, whose hit song gives the film its name. Both are clearly not quite living in reality, believing they have serious relationships with their idol and are destined to be together. But far from making them easy targets, Donnelly, while underscoring the absurdity of their unrequited love with a former celebrity, shows a sensitivity for the two lonely individuals, and an understanding for what drives their obsession. Although the viewer may at times feel uncomfortable about what they’re watching, it doesn’t cross the line into exploitation. It’s also refreshing to note that Kelly’s gender identity is not used as an explanation or primary marker of her eccentricity here – it’s just an element of her background.

IFC.com has its own take on the film here.

To order the DVD, click here.

Update: This post has been updated to reflect the revised release date.

Being released on DVD this week: THE AGE OF STUPID

UK filmmaker Franny Armstrong’s crowdfunded documentary/drama hybrid is a cautionary tale from the year 2055, warning the audience of today of the destructive path we’re taking by not addressing climate change ASAP. It’s not an easy feat to pull off hybrids, but it was an inspired decision to frame the film’s documentary elements with Peter Postlethwaite as a dystopian future-based archivist re-watching where we went wrong. Climate change is a topic that’s been addressed in many docs in the past, and will continue to be, and this was an effective way to differentiate THE AGE OF STUPID from other films, and to make its point in a believable yet sardonic way.

Last month, I interviewed Armstrong for indieWIRE, as noted in a previous post.

For more information on the DVD, visit New Video’s website.