Pink Asparagus

5/5

Courtesy of TIFF.

This year I’ll be reviewing only my favourites.🌪 From the 24 films I watched, this is one of my TOP 4 movies @ TIFF.

What an absolutely incredible way to articulate and explain the feeling of being told what your culture is by people who aren’t part of it. This was so funny and clever and amazing. Go watch it right now.

After the premiere, Cord Jefferson talked about how this film presents conversations that he’s had with other marginalized creators in the industry. He emphasized how some communities are only shown in the media in an exploitative light, making it seem like that’s all there is to their identity. He explained that when he got into the industry, he thought he’s have the creative liberty to dream up any idea and then realized that any stories he wrote were expected to be about his identity.

I hope this movie really makes it so that members of marginalized communities are given the opportunity to share the unique stories they want to share about their cultures and identities. The day before I saw this, I was talking to someone who told me that if I wanted to be successful, all I had to do was create a story about Persian women that “people would want to see” and that if I didn’t, “my integrity could cost me my career”. I told this person that I was worried that if I did write a story about who I was, someone else might turn it into something that portrayed “persian womanness” in a way I didn’t agree with and then the person told me I would never be successful. It was uncanny how comforting it was to see American Fiction the next day.