World Cinema
7pm
In Between Days
(So Yong Kim, Korean and Eng. w/ Eng. St., 82 min., 16mm, 2006)
Aimie, a newly arrived Korean immigrant teenager, has fallen in love with her best and only friend, Tran. She tries to express her feelings for him, but is scared of losing their friendship. Their misunderstood affection for each other creates a delicate relationship that is challenged by the demands of living in a new country. To spend more time with Tran, Aimie drops out of her English class, which she is failing. She fights against her mother who wants to remarry and then realizes she’s losing Tran to an Americanized Korean girl. Aimie’s world becomes more isolated, until she is forced to look inside herself for answers.
9pm
The Motel
(Michael Kang, US, English & Cantonese w/ Eng. St., 76 min., 35mm, 2005)
Winner – Humanitas Prize – Sundance Film Festival 2005
Thirteen-year-old Ernest lives and works at a sleazy hourly-rate motel on a strip of desolate suburban bi-way with his Mother, his Grandfather and his little sister. This is the family business. Misunderstood by his family and blindly careening into puberty, Ernest befriends Sam Kim, a self-destructive yet charismatic Korean American man who has checked in. Sam sees himself in Ernest, a boy lost in the worst stages of pre-pubescence with nobody to help guide him. After they bond over a midnight snack of fried chicken, Sam becomes inspired to take Ernest under his wing and teach him the steps to manhood.
