It's Ladies' Night

Last night was our second night at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. That's a mouthful, but so is NMWA (Nim-wha). So call it what you want, it's a beautiful museum where I've seen some amazing exhibits and I'm really glad we joined with them this year to screen films. I called them on a whim two years ago to inquire about a partnership and was told to call back in the spring when they were planning their calendar. After some messages and some email bouncing, I connected with KJ, who is the film programmer there. I think we're kindred spirits in our taste in film, which always helps. Anyway, you should definitely go see films there on a regular basis.

Last night we screened the women's shorts program, this year dubbed "My So-Called Disoriented Life" in reference to Eric Byler's short film (actually a television pilot) called My Life Disoriented; and of course the show that any teenage girl worth her pair of Doc Martens and a flannel shirt grew up watching in the 90's, My So-Called Life. This program was a staff favorite and contained some of the strongest shorts of the festival. It had a great response, especially the hysterical Fumi and the Bad Luck Foot, an animated short, and Pria, this little Canadian short. I've realized that all but two of the films are appropriate for any audience age and regret not pushing the program to groups that work with Asian American girls.

Following the shorts program was the feature film Kieu. This film uses simply dialogue and imagery to convey the daily life of a young woman caught in a complex situation. It also gives a lot more agency to women actually working in massage parlors and around the issue of sex work by representing them as fully human characters and not somebody that winds up dead on an episode of Law and Order.

We ended the evening with a round at Harry's over by Landmark. All these independent artsy films must have been getting to our heads because the conversation snowballed into a barrage of one-liners from 80's movies, celebrity gossip, the "whatever happened to xx?" game, and some hilarious confessions by our staff to enjoying and owning some of the worst movies ever made. Don't worry guys, I won't tell yours if you don't tell mine.