When Ruoma Was Seventeen

Coastside Film Society to screen a film about love across a cultural divide this Friday.

"A beautiful and bittersweet film, a coming-of-age tale that simultaneously gives us a small peek into the rapidly escalating clash between old and new China as the huge country races to modernize." — Don Willmott, Filmcritic.com

Ruoma is a teenage girl living in a beautiful remote region of China’s Yunnan Province, who longs for a taste of the big city.  Ming is a big city boy, an amateur photographer come to take pictures of the gorgeous mountain rice fields. Before long Ming is taking pictures of Ruoma posing in her colorful Hani garb to sell to tourists. They split the take. Of course a romance is kindled, and just as inevitably that romance is challenged by their profound cultural differences.

The photography is gorgeous, full of Hani "songs, dances, and harvest rituals, all of which Ruoma takes part in with great joy.  The last thing Ruoma needs, you’ll think, is to be taken away from this simple life, and yet the world encroaches."  Filmcritic.com

Jenny Kwok Wah Lau, Associate Professor from San Francisco State will introduce the film and take questions from the audience.

Friday Oct. 30, at 8:00
$6.00 suggested donation
Community United Methodist Church Sanctuary
777 Miramontes; Half Moon Bay

More info at: www.HMBFilm.org