Bitterroot

Vera Brunner-Sung · 2024 · 92 minutes
November 16 · Regal Riviera · 1:00 p.m.

Reeling from a failed marriage and in need of comfort and a new perspective, a middle-aged man takes care of his aging mother within the deceptively tranquil landscape of rural Montana.

Programmer’s Note

Lue (Wa Yang) is a bit lost. When we first meet him, he’s living with his mother, helping to tend their small family farm, while also working as a custodian at the local college. He passes his days in silence for the most part, wandering alone into the forests around Missoula in search of mushrooms and only expressing emotion during his occasional visits to a karaoke bar. (Lue’s go-to karaoke song will bring a smile to the faces of Gen X viewers.)

Contemplative, haunted, and packed with stunning images, Bitterroot only gradually reveals the sources of Lue’s suffering and disappointment. During one of his foraging trips, he happens upon a spiritual presence that suggests a path toward healing. For writer/director Vera Brunner-Sung, a child of immigrants, the landscapes of Western Montana evoke “some deep, archetypal themes related to American identity and mythmaking that I want to be in conversation with.”

Bitterroot was first conceived in 2016, when Brunner-Sung met Yeej, a Hmong American film producer who’d grown up in Missoula and was eager to see a second-generation story like his own told on screen. During the Vietnam War, so many Hmong people had immigrated from Laos to Missoula that a 1980 article in The Washington Post referred to the town by the local coinage, “Hmongtana.” Bitterroot is the first film to depict this community.

Bitterroot won the Special Jury Mention Award for Cinematography in a U.S. Feature at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.

Vera Brunner-Sung and producer Kazua Melissa Vang will introduce the film and participate in a Q&A.

Vera Brunner-Sung (writer, director, editor) was born in Michigan to parents from Korea and Switzerland. Her work across experimental, nonfiction, and narrative explores belonging and American identity. Her films have been presented at festivals, museums, and galleries in the U.S. and abroad, including Sundance, Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, MoMA PS1, and Leeum Samsung Museum of Art. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Center for Asian American Media and the Sundance Institute. Bitterroot is her second feature.

Kazua Melissa Vang (producer and assistant director) finds inspiration from romance novels, the art and narratives of anime and the joy of imagination and collaborative storytelling of tabletop role play. She’s a multidisciplinary artist, cultural producer and filmmaker who critically explores the present and past of the Hmong American experience, sprinkling in comedy, drama and fantasy elements. She co-founded the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Minnesota Film Collective to support the economic vitality and create space and opportunities for AAPI filmmakers. Her production credits include the pilot web series Hmong Organization, The Stranger, and the episodic pilot Nice (Tribeca 2018).