The Princess of Nebraska

In Person: Director Wayne Wang, co-director Richard Wong, actors Ling Li, Pamelyn Chee, Brian Danforth

In directing a companion film for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Wayne Wang went back to the same source: Bay Area author Yiyun Li’s award-winning book of short stories. In The Princess of Nebraska, Li sketches out a family conflict of a different sort: the travails of a young college student, Sasha (Ling Li) who has arrived in the Bay Area to procure an abortion.

With the father, Yang, missing, Sasha seeks out Yang’s male lover, Boshen (Brian Danforth), for support and closure. Once she realizes Boshen has his own agenda concerning her pregnancy, Sasha slips into the streets of San Francisco, befriending a bar hostess (Pamelyn Chee) the night before her clinic appointment.

The intricacies of intimacy have long been Wang’s hallmark, but digital cinematographer Richard Wong (Colma: The Musical) adds a layer of kinetic edginess. Not only does Wong close in on simple, meaning-laden gestures, but parts of The Princess of Nebraska are shot as if through Sasha’s cell-phone camera. The effect is both intensely personal yet oddly distanced, as if she’s a third-party character in the story of her life.

Throughout his career, Wang has developed intriguing, multidimensional portraits of women. Sasha is the latest in this storied line, with her youthful naiveté eventually fading into sobering clarity as her impending decision arrives. As in A Thousand Years, Wang uses this remarkable heroine to provide a moving examination of people trying to summon the power to live life in all its complicated, hectic beauty. The film is the first narrative feature produced by CAAM, and features a host of Bay Area talent both behind and in front of the camera.