Today is the start of Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and for the lucky attendees, that means snow, parties and most importantly, tons of movies to watch. Here at Audrey we have highlighted the Asian and Asian American films premiering at Sundance this year, but we wanted to give a special spotlight to the film Advantageous which is directed by, written by and starring Asian American women. Because the amount of working female directors hasn’t increased since 1998, and the fact that “moviegoers were as likely to see an other-worldly [non-human or alien] female as they were to see an Asian female character” in 2013, we are heartened by the amount of roles Advantageous provides for Asian women both in front of and behind the camera.
Sundance has already uploaded a video highlighting Advantageous writer and director Jennifer Phang, who briefly discusses her film. While Advantageous takes place in a sci-fi future, the emphasis of the film seems to be motherhood, parental sacrifice and what it means to be selfless.
According to the synopsis posted on the Sundance website, Advantageous takes place “in a metropolis in the near future, Gwen Koh, a beautiful woman full of poise and grace, works as the spokesperson for the Center for Advanced Health and Living, a company that offers a radical new technology allowing people to overcome their natural disadvantages and begin life anew. But when a shift in company priorities threatens her job and her family, will Gwen undergo the procedure herself?”
Advantageous is based off a short film by Jennifer Phang, which is available to watch below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xiJhd-soyQ
So if you are lucky enough to be at Sundance, check out Advantageous! For the rest of us who can’t, we hope that we can see Advantageous in a theater near us very, very soon.
