Restrospective: Saving Face

Wil is a lesbian, but she doesn’t dare tell her widowed mother, Hwei-lan, or her very traditional grandparents. She’s shocked, however, to find out she’s not the only one in her family with romantic secrets when she learns that her 48-year-old mother is pregnant. Unwilling to reveal who the father is, Hwei-lan is kicked out of her parents’ home and must move in with Wil, which puts a strain on Wil’s budding relationship with openly gay Vivian.

This year marks 20 years since the international premiere of the acclaimed queer film Saving Face, Alice Wu’s debut feature-length film before she went on to direct The Half of It (2020). After 20 years, Saving Face remains extremely relevant as an essential Chinese-American and lesbian film. cinéSPEAK and Queer Space Philly delighted to collaborate on this special presentation.

Directed by Alice Wu

Director’s Bio: Alice Wu’s debut feature, Saving Face, made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and was released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2005. Her second film, The Half of It, won the Founder’s Award at the Tribeca Film Festival before its release on Netflix in 2020. The script was a 2018 selection for the prestigious Black List and garnered a nomination for Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards. In addition to her feature projects, Alice has been directing episodic television (including Interior Chinatown for Hulu), as well as commercials.

Preceded By

I Wanna Be the Sky

Directed by Jess X. Snow

In a dystopian near-future of Chinese Exclusion, when a young student visits the studio of a charismatic artist to get her first tattoo, she is forced to confront a shared cultural secret that awakens the burgeoning force inside of her.