Romeo and Benvolio - Reception and Screening
Wednesday, March 15, 2023 | 5:00pm-8:00pm
Local Charlottesville filmmaker Anna Ma will be premiering her new feature length film “Romeo and Benvolio.” Refreshments will be served, followed by the film, then discussions. A few Center members are also in the film.
While rehearsing for a school production of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, Charlie, Amanda and Sophia, unexpectedly steer through their own comedy of errors.
Charlie, being seventeen, finds himself ready to confess his love to Sophia. He simply needs to find the right way to say it, but not when his little sister Ruby messes up his Valentine’s cards. Charlie sets out to correct the misunderstanding, but unexpectedly finds himself drawn in by Amanda’s enchanted world. At the same time, he starts to sense that time can change the world, his friends, as well as himself.
Amanda is enchanted in the world of drama and welcomes an extension of it when Charlie’s card arrives at her cubby. She invites Charlie into her imaginative world of love until the reality of her family intrudes her perfect world of drama. She must navigate through the entanglement of illusion and disillusion ahead.
Sophia is a busy teenager practicing Wushu and Taekwondo as well as enjoying the fun time spent with her friends in theatre, but she has no interest in taking part in the silly love shown in Romeo and Juliet. She considers her parents to be workaholics and doubts about if they love each other. However, a local breaking news brings a new reality for her to digest.
Charlie’s grandma, Coco, oversees this comedy of errors but blames no one. Her answer to all the mistakes is Love.
Director's bio:
Kuei-Lan Anna Ma
Born in 1965 in Taipei, Taiwan, Kuei-Lan Anna Ma graduated from Fu Jen Catholic University in 1989 and then came to the U.S. to receive a M.F.A. degree in Filmmaking at Ohio University and a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Arts at the same University. She had made two short films in 16mm film at film school, Waiting for Spring and Really? Riddy? Riddy?, one tragedy and the other comedy. She wanted to explore different narrative genres from her point of view as a female filmmaker as well as an immigrant in the new land. Her book Symbolist Films: The Metaphorical Expression of Narrative Films defines symbolist films as the films with dualistic schemes to convey two layers of meanings.
Ma has written a couple of screenplays including: The Return, The Story of the Sea, Hundred Years’ Encounter, Lunar Relatives, and Romeo and Benvolio. Ma eventually submitted Lunar Relatives to a few festivals and it has won two best screenplay prizes and two finalist screenplays at the competitions. In 2022, Ma produced and directed her first feature, Romeo and Benvolio, which will have its premiere around the summer of 2023.
Open to all.
Location: The Center