February, 2009
Wendy & Lucy Screening #WandL
Amidst the chaos of this weeks organising the final stages of the Rain Emperor it was a welcome break to be invited to a screening of a new independent film by Kelly Reichardt called Wendy & Lucy. The film follows a young girl and her on her way to Alaska to look for work over the summer and reflects current issues of sympathy, generosity and the limit of peoples duty to each other in tough times. It was a refreshing change to see a film so meandering, watching it felt like we were being given the opportunity to think in real time on some of the decisions that Wendy came to face. It was a bleak representation of how much we as humans are prepared to put ourselves out for each other, but what was most shocking is how unsurprising this was as the audience looking in. It is frustrating to think of ourselves in this way, there were times when characters seemed to teeter on the edge of being more compassionate but in all honesty I expected characters Wendy met in the film to be more cruel in some cases. Maybe that is more to do with being spoonfed violence in so many of the other recent films I have watched, so you come to expect a more depraved series of events. It was a real treat to be able to attend and thanks to Soda Pictures for the invite. The film is released on March 6th. www.sodapictures.com www.wendyandlucy.co.uk