Supermarket Affairs

While preparing for her late husbandʼs second death anniversary, an older Vietnamese immigrant woman starts fantasizing about a handsome younger man whom she sees at a local Asian supermarket, while keeping it secret from her only daughter. After a big argument with her daughter on the anniversary day, the woman goes back to the supermarket to find solace in the connection with the man, not knowing that this time she is followed by her daughter. In the finale sequence, accumulated tensions explode to a dramatic yet hilarious confrontation between the three of them, creating room for reconciliation and making the woman realize what she truly wants for her new life in America.

Directed by Hang Luong Nguyen
Produced by Camille Morales-Zayas

Director’s Bio: Nguyen Luong Hang is a director, producer from Ho Chi Minh City interested in exploring the Vietnamese female identity and its relationships with family and grief in film. Her debut short “The Story of Us” (2014) screened at the 2016 Focus on Asia Fukuoka FF. She served as producer to Trinh Dinh Le Minh’s award-winning debut feature Goodbye Mother (2019), considered one of the first LGBTQ films out of Vietnam to participate in the international cinematic scene and selected by prestigious festivals in Busan, Hawaii and Toronto before its distribution on Netflix Vietnam. Her latest short as director, “Supermarket Affairs” (2022), is currently on the festival circuit and has screened at Osaka Asian FF, CAAMFest and Palm Springs ShortFest. She is also an alumna of Singapore IFF’s Southeast Asian Film Lab, Locarno Open Doors Lab and EAVE Ties That Bind. At the moment, she is pursuing an MFA in Film Production at the University of Texas at Austin with a Fulbright scholarship.

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Inside Jokes

Inside jokes connect us to the people we love the most, even if they may sometimes cause us to laugh when we shouldn’t. By tackling topics such as caring for an aging loved one, intergenerational culture clash, and the myriad emotions brought on by spending time in our own heads, these films invite you to find humor within the ebb and flow of life.