Esperanza Catubig
Bitter Melon is a "home for the holidays" dark comedy where a Filipino-American family plots to kill an abusive member.
When Emma Gardner, a whip smart NYC reporter learns of her father's untimely death, she returns to her home town to find that the idyllic farming community of her childhood has been ravaged by drought and has become a place tormented by gangs and the ill effects of extreme poverty. She quickly figures out that her dad's accidental death was not accidental at all. The lists of possible suspects include overly zealous environmentalists, a local war lord and other farmers jealous of her father's outstanding reputation.
A moment of crisis changes everything. One stormy night a sudden, shattering collision takes an innocent life. Now seven people find their paths intertwined by the accident and hard questions reflected in their own lives. Why do such tragedies occur? If God is good, why does He allow so much pain? As each of them struggle through the aftermath, threads of hope and faith and the support of close friends become the lifeline to a strength they could never find alone. Nationally esteemed pastor and author Bob Russell is featured as himself in a powerfully dramatic film that brings his teachings to vivid life.
Lonely gay teenager, McClain, struggles to fit in with his classmates in a small, conservative Colorado town. After he's severely beaten at school, Karen O'Neil, a martial arts Sensei, secretly trains him to defend himself. When the town discovers their secret, a series of catastrophic events unfolds.
The hypnotic, watery landscapes of the San Francisco Bay Area's salt ponds set the magical tone of the film. This festival favorite, critically acclaimed drama tells the story of rebirth - as a father and daughter rediscover each other. Like few other American movies, the film uniquely approaches multi-racial conflicts.Shed, a Vietnam vet working the salt ponds of the south bay area and fighting demons of the past, is visited by the daughter he left behind in Vietnam 17 years before when the American troops retreated.Minh is an outcast in her own homeland and has come to America to find her father. She ignites dormant emotional fires and the two of them begin a parallel search for ethnic identity and personal belonging.The powerful performances are set to a classic jazz and 50s/60s R&B soundtrack, with stunning visuals of the moody waterscapes at the margins of Silicon Valley.
