photo by pete droge

When we were invited to screen A Lot Like You at the 30th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, I knew I wanted to bring Lucy with  me.  SFIAAFF is the largest and most prestigious showcase for new Asian American and Asian films in North America, and I wanted Lucy to be immersed in the experience of screening her film (she takes the dedication very seriously) at this amazing festival.  So we agreed that she would keep a journal of her SF trip to share with her kindergarten classmates.

Lucy was inspired by our friend Anne Conroy-Baiter’s beautiful artist journal of her recent trip to Portland, and decided to do the same.  So she wrote and drew through our entire trip, and didn’t show me her writing/drawings til she was done.

This is what she had to say…(translations of Lucy’s Guess&Go spelling are in the captions, if you need the assist.)

[Click on image to pause/play…]

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Being with Lucy in SF was a game changer for me — having her experience first-hand the energy shift in the room as the audience opens up to our story, falls in love with my parents, and then goes along for the ride.  She felt the intimacy and vulnerability of our post-screening conversations.  She saw the hugs, witnessed the tears, heard the stories. 

So even if it means that her mama’s away from home more often now, she really gets what I’m doing and why.  And Lucy believes her film’s work in the world is “really important”.