Event
Dìdi
In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, flirt, and love your mom.
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Dìdi is the debut feature from director and writer Sean Wang. You may remember watching his Oscar-nominated short, Nai Nai & Wài Pó, earlier this year in our cinema. There has been so much buzz around Dìdi all summer, we are thrilled to be screening it after much anticipation.
On Friday, September 6th, 6 PM (for one night only), we are hosting a conversation with Angela Rola (founding Director of the Asian American Cultural Center at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus), Catherine Shen (host of CT Public’s Where We Live), and Jaspreet Singh (Trumbull High School senior). This presentation is co-hosted by our community partner, Asian Pacific American Coalition of CT (APAC CT). APAC is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 that provides services and education for and about the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Connecticut.
If you are a member of APAC CT, you will be offered a discounted price of $7 for admission. When ordering tickets online, please select Adult Member for the discounted pricing.
Due to limited seating, securing advance tickets for the September 6 screening and panel is highly recommended.
Angela Rola is the founding Director of the Asian American Cultural Center (AsACC) at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus. This student-centered space focuses on cultural identity, equity, and inclusion, where students can be part of many programs that develop their leadership skills and sense of belonging.
She is an Affiliate Faculty for the UConn Asian & Asian American Studies Institute and developed and taught a course on Asian American mentoring and leadership. She lectures extensively in undergraduate and graduate courses on campus and at local colleges and universities. Most recently, she also served as a co-principal investigator for a $1.9 million grant at the UConn Hartford campus that centers on developing courses and programs focused on the Asian American community.
Angela develops and facilitates workshops on issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice, implicit bias, cultural competency, and creating inclusive environments. Within the state of Connecticut, Angela lobbied for the creation of the first Asian American Affairs Commission, which is now part of the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity & Opportunity (CWCSEO).
In 2006 she co-founded the Asian Pacific American Coalition of CT, a non-profit, non-partisan community group that provides services and education for and about the Asian American community in Connecticut. She presently sits on its Executive Board.
Before working in Higher Education, Angela worked in both the corporate and non-profit worlds as a Human Resources specialist in New York, California, and Alaska.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Catherine Shen is the Host of Connecticut Public’s morning talk show and podcast, Where We Live. Catherine and the WWL team focus on going beyond the headlines to bring in meaningful conversations that put Connecticut in context.
Before her current position, Catherine was Connecticut Public’s education reporter for just over a year. She covered a variety of stories like student mental health, childcare shortages, and teacher burnout. She joined Connecticut Public’s newsroom in 2021. The Los Angeles native came to CT Public after a decade of print and digital reporting across the country.
She started her journalism career in the Los Angeles fashion scene. While that was an exciting time, Catherine ultimately needed to get back to her news roots. She was soon traipsing all across California’s Central Coast as a freelance news reporter for several newspapers, where she broke stories about local government, law enforcement, and education. She also covered crime, healthcare, business, as well as arts and culture.
After finding herself on the East Coast, she continued reporting in New Jersey, covering a mix of academic news, nonprofit projects, and human feature stories both off and on camera. Then she moved to Connecticut and started reporting for the New Britain Herald, where she won several Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists awards for her coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice movements, and police accountability.
Catherine received an undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism from Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. While an undergraduate student, she was a reporter for the university newspaper and its student-run television station, Cable 8 News. She’s also a proud member of the Asian American Journalism Society.
In her downtime, she tries her best to catch up on her reading list but often fails due to a variety of distractions, including reorganizing her bookshelves, scavenging library book sales, and thinking about reading books.
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
Jaspreet Singh is a senior at Trumbull High School, where he’s captain of the cross country track team, VP of Finance for the DECA chapter and a member of FBLA. Outside of school, he enjoys serving his community and is an intern with the Sikh American Legal Defense Education Fund (SALDEF) and Asian Pacific American Coalition of Connecticut. Jaspreet volunteers at his local place of worship (gurdwara) on Sundays and is CFO of a tutoring non-profit called Trumbull Tutors, whose goal is to provide students in underprivileged areas with free access to education. When he’s not in school or volunteering and has some time to himself, he enjoys playing basketball with friends and skiing during the winter.
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“It’s a love letter to the world of Top 8s and status updates, an apology to beleaguered parents everywhere,” Li continues. “And, perhaps for Wang, an embrace of his younger self’s disorientation.” – The Atlantic
“There’s a particular scene in the film that is pure in its heart-on-its-sleeve naked brilliance, one that’s as full of rich emotion as anything you’ll see in any movie this year.” – SF Chronicle
Listen to this They Call Us Bruce podcast episode featuring Sean Wang
