Sally’s Beauty Spot

Film Maker
Lee, Helen
Year
1990
Country
Canada
Language
Format
16mm
Length
13
Genre
experimental
Category
Asian, body, Race + Ethnicity, Work about Women, Work by Women

In this lively, intimate film, a large black mole above an Asian woman’s breast serves as a metaphor for cultural and sexual difference. Off-screen women’s voices and scenes form the 1960 Hollywood miscegenation melodrama “The World of Suzie Wong” counterpoint Sally’s own interracial encounters and emerging self-awareness. A stylish and playfully impressionistic account of racial expectations and role-playing which critiques Western stereotypes of Asian femininity. “…challenges fetishistic and colonialist forms of representation, wittily tracing a character’s move from stereotypical object to sexual subject.” – Laura U. Marks, Afterimage “Framed as a struggle with identity and racialized notions of beauty, this narrative is juxtaposed with a brilliant meditation on spectatorship.” – Richard Fung, Fuse Selected screenings: Toronto International Film Festival; Los Angeles Asian Pacific American Film Festival; New York Asian American Film Festival; Oberhausen Film Festival; Juror’s Award, Black Maria Film Festival

Stills From Video

  • Still 1

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts