Film at Lincoln Center Announces LULU WANG’S ROAD TO EXPATS
Running February 13–15, The series will feature THE FAREWELL filmmakers influences for new Limited Series EXPATS, Accompanied by Wang in Person for Q&A.
[New York, NY — January 11, 2024] — Film at Lincoln Center announces “Lulu Wang’s Road to ,” a selection of films handpicked by Wang that influenced her new Prime Video series, featuring the filmmaker in-person for a Q&A following feature-length Expats episode “Central,” and an introduction to her 2019 hit The Farewell. The series will run from February 13 through February 15 and will include a wide range of influences, from 1970s classics to harrowing horror films to documentaries and narrative features tackling the intersection of class, race, and abuse of power, with several selections presented on 35mm.
With her breakout feature The Farewell, Lulu Wang-effortlessly observant of the nuances of human behavior as much as the peculiar cultural and generational schisms born of the hyphenated American experience-cuts through the noise of contemporary popular cinema as one of its most distinctive and sincere voices. Wang has followed up on the promise made by that 2019 feature with her recent and perhaps most moving work yet: Expats (launching on Prime Video on January 26) is a six-part adaptation of Janice Y. K. Lee’s widely acclaimed The Expatriates (1998). Vividly bringing Lee’s novel to life on an ambitious scale and with a peerless cast including Nicole Kidman, Ji-young Yoo, and Sarayu Blue, Wang has fashioned an exquisite ensemble drama surrounding a trio of women bound by tragedy. She casts her penetrating gaze on the intersection of race and privilege in Hong Kong’s milieu of expats, and the migrant domestic workers employed by them, in the months leading up to the 2014 Umbrella Revolution.
On February 15, Film at Lincoln Center will host Wang, who directed each of the six episodes, for a Q&A following a screening of the series’ penultimate chapter, “Central,” and an introduction for her widely beloved feature The Farewell. In anticipation of this evening, and to further enrich the many ways of approaching Expats, Wang also curated a selection of films that directly influenced her new series. Highlights include well-known filmmakers’ works, such as Triangle of Sadness writer-director Ruben Östlund’s 2011 film Play; the overdue New York theatrical premiere of A White, White Day (2019) from filmmaker Hlynur Pálmason (recently shortlisted for an Oscar with his latest film Godland); and classics including a 4K restoration of Robert Altman’s Nashville (1975) and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973), which will be presented on an archival 35mm print on Valentine’s Day along with 35mm presentations of Lynne Ramsay’s We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Bong Joon Ho’s Mother (2009) for the ultimate relationship horror trifecta.
Additionally, both Wang and filmmaker Joanna Bowers will introduce the U.S. theatrical premiere of Bowers’s 2018 documentary The Helper, which served as a key reference to Wang while developing Expats and sheds light on the reality of the migrant domestic worker industry with impressive resourcefulness and heartfelt intuition.
Organized by Florence Almozini, Tyler Wilson, and Lulu Wang.
For more information, visit filmlinc.org
Originally published at http://behindtherabbitproductions.wordpress.com on January 11, 2024.
