It’s the last screening of the season for the Williams Lake Film Club on Thursday May 4th at the Paradise Cinemas, and it’s going to be an amazing evening, featuring two outstanding pieces of B.C. filmmaking.
First, in collaboration with Tŝilhqot’in National Government we will be premiering the short documentary The Xeni Gwet’in Traverse in Williams Lake. This 16-minute short chronicles the remarkable journey taken by five men who left from the community of Xeni Gwet’in in Nemiah Valley in July of 2022 to hike across the Coast Mountains to Bute Inlet, retracing a demanding and risky 75 km trek that had traditionally been made by some families from Xeni Gwet’in.
The journey includes three Xeni Gwet’in community members, former chief of the Xeni Gwet’in Nation Jimmy Lulua, Nelson William, and Bruce Lulua, along with two non-Indigenous hikers, Brian Finnie and Michael Mylonas. Reel Water Productions out of Squamish B.C. filmed the short, outdoor company Arc’teryx sponsored gear and supplies for the hike, and White Saddle Air provided helicopter and logistical support. In addition to the hikers, the film features barrel racer Kaitlyn Lulua.
Historically, the mountain expedition was made by some families to trade with coastal First Nations for goods, and to take advantage of more readily available food sources and gentler winter climates. William Lulua, an elder who made the journey as a young man, is the only living link to the tradition, a tradition former Chief Jimmy Lulua wanted to see upheld.
Culturally and historically important, The Xeni Gwet’in Traverse is exhilarating and stunning, with incredible footage of the Coast Mountains and Homathko Ice Fields. The big screen is the ideal place to see it, and we are excited members from the expedition will be on hand!
Then, it’s the award-winning feature Riceboy Sleeps, by Vancouver based writer-director Anthony Shim. This semi-autobiographical drama chronicles the relationship of a young mother So-young and her son, Dong-hyun, who immigrate to B.C. Canada from Korea in the 90s.
The film begins with a narrated backstory, unfolds over two parts, and spans over many years.
The first part of the film chronicles how the pair negotiate the social maze of being East Asian in a mostly white town. So-young (veteran dancer Choi Seung-Yoon) secures work at a factory job, and Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang) must navigate his first year in elementary school as the only Asian kid in his class. There are many wonderful elements of storytelling here, and Shim lets the narrative unfold by focusing on small moments. For example, when classmates tease Dong-hyun for his traditional Korean lunches of kimchi and gimbap, he implores his mother to make sandwiches, which she does not only for him, but for herself as well. Slowly, quietly, we learn who these characters are, what their relationships are, and how things shift over the years.
When the film jumps ahead to the end of the 90s, Don-hyun (now played by Ethan Hwang) is a teenager with dyed blond hair and blue contact lens. So-young now has a romantic partner, who Dong-hyun doesn’t like, and Dong-hyun has new friends and past-times (like smoking and drinking) which dismay So-young. They have become distanced, and Dong-hyun is aware of lingering absences in his life. A school assignment about family history prompts him to ask So-young questions about their past, questions she is reluctant to answer. Things come to a head when a family crisis forces So-young to reconsider her relationship to the past, and the pair travel back to the rolling hills of Gangwon Province in Korea to reconnect to their fractured past and each other.
There are so many things to discuss about this film, including how it explores language (in Korea the meld of English and Korean is called Konglish) and what we lose in translation. How it incorporates traditional elements of Korean folktales into the story and how the character of So-young defies the stereotypes of Asian women as subservient and demure. Ideas which still predominate in western culture. The filmmaking is very intentional and effective. As Shim explains it, “[i]n the 1990s portion of the film, oftentimes I frame it so the Korean characters are in the background, and the Caucasian characters are in the foreground and are very dominating with their voices, their faces, their bodies…And once we get to 1999, I started the reverse and start to dominate the frame with Korean protagonists. That was the reality of how I experienced the 1990s in my childhood. I always felt like my family and Korean people we were around were always in the background, we were always tucked away and sometimes voluntarily hiding to avoid feeling awkward or uncomfortable” (Hollywood Reporter 2023).
This attention to fine attention to detail and specificity elevate Riceboy Sleeps beyond a typical character study.
The Xeni Gwet’in Traverse and Riceboy Sleeps will be screening on Thursday May 4th at the Paradise Cinemas (78 Third Ave South). Rated PG. Tickets are $10. Advance tickets are on sale now at The Open Book, and remaining tickets will be sold in the cinema lobby prior to the screening. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show starts at 7 p.m.
READ MORE: Williams Lake Film Club screening award winning Geographies of Solitude Jan. 12
READ MORE: Williams Lake Film Club to screen documentary Pure Grit
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