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Homegirl Alice Wu makes good with a very funny Lesbian comedy Saving Face

Homegirl Alice Wu makes good with a very funny Lesbian comedy Saving Face
by Rajkhet Dirzhud-Rashid - SGN A&E Writer The first thing one notices about Alice Wu, the director of the very funny and poignant Lesbian comedy Saving Face, is how totally hot she is. I met her two weeks ago, the day her film was to open in the Seattle International Film Festival, here, and in L.A., and New York, the next week. After taking an emergency phone call, which it seemed was related to last minute details about the multiple openings, Wu plopped herself down in a chair at the conference table at the W Hotels SIFF interview room and the interview began. She was very upbeat and very happy that shed been lucky enough to have had Saving Face be immediately picked up by Sony Classics after its premiere at the Toronto film festival last year, where the film had a world premiere. It was in Toronto that it got picked up by Sony Classics, so I feel really happy about that. Seattles a big market for the film, and so far everywhere the films been screened the audiences have been great, she said. Wu added that some of the members of the Asian-American Lesbian group that she and some friends started while she lived in Seattle between 1992 and 96 came to the opening screening and cheered her on. It was good to see them again, and Im glad they liked the film, said Wu. Asked if the film was true to her own life, being that the two main characters are Asian-American and Lesbian, Wu said that whereas she did pull some of her own experiences into the film, it wasnt autobiographical in a true story sense. Im not a brain surgeon like Wil, and I didnt grow up in New York, but essentially the film rings true, said Wu. She went on to say that she also considered herself lucky because, unlike a lot of other filmmakers, she didnt go to film school for her start, but she did write the play that became the film, while she lived in Seattle, until 1998. Then I moved to Brooklyn, and though a few things in the script were changed, Id say 80 percent of what I originally wrote became the film, said Wu. She added that though the main theme of the film has to do with a Lesbian relationship, she feels that the film appeals to a lot of people because of its more universal theme of a need to find and have love in ones life. People from all backgrounds laugh at the same places in the film that other audiences do, be they mostly Gay or straight or mixed, and I think the characters could be any race, they just happen to be Chinese and they happen to be Lesbians. Wu said she wanted to show a spectrum of Chinese experiences and characters and that originally, there was some pressure to make Vivian, the main character, white, but Wu was able to keep Vivians character Asian as she wanted. Whats interesting, though, is I can generally tell the Lesbians in the audience, because they all laugh at the Christy McNichol joke, and no one else gets it, said Wu, and we both laughed, since its shared Lesbian knowledge that McNichol was rumored to be a Dyke back in the day. Asked how straight Asian audiences have responded to the film here in Seattle, Wu said theyve responded well. Its because the characters are so lovable, and its such an old-fashioned romantic comedy. The difference is that all of the main characters are Asian, said Wu. I think too, its good to have an old-fashioned romance and its like the internalized homophobia weve grown up with, to think that we cant have a happy ending if were Gay or Lesbian. In this film, that isnt true. I think its something important for us to see. For us to leave the theater believing in love and that we dont always have to be these sad or tragic characters. I guess Im a secret optimist, said Wu, smiling again that brighter than sunshine smile. At the time, she was hoping the film was successful in its multiple openings out of the film festival womb, because it was opening that weekend against Adam Sandlers The Longest Yard. I would love if people left the theater with a sense of hope and possibilities for having what they really want most. Its never too late, said Wu . The film opens today, and I heartily recommend it, whether youre in love, or just an optimist hoping to be in love.