11th Annual DC APA Film Festival

The Things We Carry

2010 DC Asian Pacific American Film Festival — Best Narrative Feature
Private reception for Closing Night film ticket holders following each screening at the Goethe-Institut.

Community Sponsor: Sejong Society of Washington, D.C.

This highly personal debut feature film from the Lobit Sisters introduces thrill-seeking wanderer Emmie (Alyssa Lobit), her beleaguered but responsible sister Eve (Catherine Kresge), their drug-addict mother Sunny (Alexis Rhee), and a host of other colorful characters.

Emmie is traveling in South East Asia when she receives a letter from Ricky, her mother’s last companion that informs her of a mysterious package left for her by her recently-deceased mother. Shocked by Sunny’s death and curious about the package, she decides to return home to Los Angeles with only a single clue in hand: The Best Motel, the last place Sunny called home. There she meets a series of her junkie mother’s friends, each more unreliable than the last.

She is finally joined by her estranged sister Eve, who has chronic ulcers and a lifetime of worries from taking care of the responsibilities Emmie left behind. A story about family and finding peace concerning the things we cannot control, The Things We Carry won Best Feature and Best Screenplay awards at the Wild Rose Independent Film Festival and the Audience Award at San Francisco United Film Festival.

Regarding the unique position of casting herself to play a character based on herself, Alyssa described her experience on the film in an interview with Gene Huh, saying: “It’s been a strange process because we’ve kind of forgotten that it is personal, in a way. Because it’s not all true, there’s plenty of fictionalization… But for sure, there were times when we’d be shooting and the absurdity of it hit me. Life imitating art imitating life.”
— Sunbin Song

Alyssa Lobit, Writer, Emmie Roberts
Half of the Lobit Sisters Productions team, Alyssa Lobit is a 2007 Academy Nicholl Fellowships Quarterfinalist, with The Things We Carry placing in the top 5% of 5,050 entries in this prestigious competition. The Things We Carry marks her debut as both writer and lead actress in a feature. She made her debut as a director and producer with One Man’s Trash, which won the 2004 LA Flickering Image Film Fest and was a finalist in the highly competitive IndieProducer Contest in 2005.

Athena Lobit, Producer
The Things We Carry marks Athena Lobit’s debut as a feature producer, and she was instrumental in the development of the project, from the script stage. Prior to producing, she was a Post-Production Supervisor in the world of animation. Athena served as Co-Producer and Assistant Director on the well-received short One Man’s Trash, which was produced and directed by her sister Alysssa and won the 2004 Los Angeles Flickering Image Film Fest and was a finalist in the highly competitive IndieProducer Contest in 2005.

Ian McCrudden, Director
Variety has praised Ian McCrudden’s work for its “deeply felt performances” and “intimate, powerfully atmospheric” style. He has directed eight feature films, including Äntligen Midsommar – A Swedish Midsummer Comedy (Luke Perry), Anita O’Day – The Life of a Jazz Singer, Islander (Philip Baker Hall), Trespassers (Michelle Borth), and The Big Day (Julianna Margulies). Ian lives in Los Angeles and Stockholm with his wife Annica and two sons, Miles and Elton.

Preceded by:

A woman returns home from a business trip to find a mysterious package that carries a message from another place and time.

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