Girl! (High Five Slap)

That's what Alex and I kept saying to each other in our sisterhood of the traveling pants weekend at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. All I can say is - it was just what the doctor ordered. We were both fuming from stuff that had happened last week and were ready for a getaway. Hookah in Glendale was not enough to take away our pain. First though, we had to stuff ourselves silly in San Gabriel valley - we discovered our new favorite dessert - passion fruit ice jelly drink - I had so much of it, I was literally in physical pain from it nearly bursting out of my stomach. Then we met our friend, Tina, and her boyfriend for a Chinese breakfast (fried bread strips dipped into steaming hot sweet soy milk, thin slices of marinated beef, pickles, and cilantro wrapped in a crumbly sesame cake.) Again, I ate until I was in physical pain.
We drove down and tried to check into our hotel, a Best Western, but the clerk at the desk told us our reservation had been canceled by someone else! Turns out it was the festival staff - they had switched us over to the Town and Country hotel, a blast from the past (rat pack cool - palm trees, bright yellow seat cushions and white iron chairs, brown block lettering signs) where all the festival events were taking place. On top of that, they were paying for the hotel room. Cool daddio!We checked in at the festival hospitality suite and met some of the very friendly festival staff, and ate some of the food they provided there - they had all these interesting asian chips and crackers, and juices from the korean market - pear juice, muscat juice up for grabs. And we partook. We sat there, and truly felt we had arrived. Just imagine, I said to Alex, when we met five years ago at the House of Blues at Steve's party and the film was just an idea. Now it's real, and here we were, sitting poolside, enjoying the fruits of our labor.5 long years! Turns out, all the other documentary filmmakers we met said the same thing - "It took 5 years. It was hell." "Everyone kept asking me when I was going to finish the damn thing." But, just like after a long labor - once the baby is born, the pain doesn't seem to matter.Later on that night we attended the gala, and danced to 80's songs (Hungry like the wolf! Hungry like the wolf! Thanks Timo) at the karaoke night.Sunday was the big day. I kept telling Alex, "We could be the only 2 people at the screening," because I truly did not know who was going to show up. Much to our delight, the festival did a great job marketing and getting sponsors, and there was a great turnout by a multicultural crowd. They laughed, they cried. They asked good questions afterwards.On our way back home, Alex and I got into an animated discussion in the car. She was really struck by the statistic that Kristina talked about in the film, about suicide rates among Asian American young women. We talked about the pressure that we felt growing up to be proper, perfect, and poised - like a Miss Chinatown, and how we all had this mask on that hid our true feelings - and how this can drive you crazy! We talked about how life had taught us to reveal more of ourselves and peel away that mask, a sometimes painful process that was ultimately liberating.The day before Alex asked me whether I would make another film. I say, no way. Somehow by the time we got to talking back in San Gabriel Valley and after another order of passion fruit jelly ice, we decided that we wanted to try to make a narrative feature film with a similar theme! Stay tuned...