The Grace Lee Project
angie
First Saturdays at The Brooklyn Museum has done a great job of showing a diverse line up of films amidst the multiple entertainment options that occur there on the first Saturday of each month. This past Saturday was the first weekend of their new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art so all of the events had a feminist twist—from a female pre-teen punk band to a party spun by DJ JD Samson of Le Tigre fame to even a feminist inspired collage making session!
The Grace Lee Project was one of a few films they featured throughout the day. We are working on a film about identity and I have been searching for some inspiration. Mostly, I have been looking for a film that is not so serious. Most films that deal with identity are kind of depressing. The process of learning more about yourself is always this big struggle. It is so rarely a cause for celebration. The Grace Lee Project was nothing like that!
The basic premise, sans spoilers, is this: The filmmaker, Grace Lee, keeps encountering people who know other women with the name Grace Lee. (Jean mentioned that she knew a Grace Lee. Another friend said she knew a Grace Lee too. I do not know any but apparently it is a really, really common name.) Everyone who knows a Grace Lee says that she is really nice, really smart and really quiet—basically every stereotype that exists for an Asian woman. The filmmaker decides to go on a journey to find other Grace Lees and to answer the age old question, what is in a name?
This film would not work if the filmmaker was not so funny, charismatic and most importantly, self-aware. Her narration, a device that normally irks me, sounds like your cool, funny friend telling you a quirky story about herself. There are some really hilarious moments in this film. I do not want to give anything away but for anyone who has seen it, they will understand my newfound inability to look at nicely wrapped packages the same way. You should definitely check this film out.
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| Posted on April 9, 2007
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