MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Grab your popcorn and make sure you snag your tickets.
The Cleveland International Film Festival is officially underway, highlighting some of the best and brightest filmmakers from across the nation and right here in Northeast Ohio.
This includes multi-award-winning Mayfield Heights native Anne Hu.
Hu's "Lunchbox" is a labor of love.
She directed, wrote, and acted in the short film.
"I'm so excited to come back to Cleveland," Hu said.
It is a true homecoming for Hu.
The Mayfield High School graduate and first-generation Asian American is sharing her deeply personal, passion project--"Lunchbox" at the Cleveland International Film Festival.
"The logline is when a Taiwanese American woman prepares lunches from her childhood, she struggles to forgive herself for pushing away her immigrant mother," Hu said.
The entire film is based on real-life events and was shot here in Northeast Ohio, with surrounding suburbs like Mayfield Heights, Strongsville, and Lakewood acting as backdrops.
She says she couldn't have done it without the support of the Cleveland Film Commission and partial crowdfunding.
Hu says the inspiration for the film came about after she caught a video on Facebook years ago that forever changed her.
It made her look within and evoked immediate emotion.
"It was this video about all these Asian-Americans as adults reflecting on how when they were children. They brought their "stinky lunches" to school and how they were they're bullied for their school lunches," Hu said.
Those kids pushed away their parents.
Years later, they were reunited with them and apologized for their actions, and celebrated their culture.
"Lunchbox," which Hu directed, wrote, and starred in, is about love and healing.
The film is a tribute to her beloved late mother and illustrates the evolution of relationships.
"My mother, unfortunately, passed away when I was 20 years old. So, this is definitely a love letter to my mom and also a catharsis for anybody who has experienced loss, but also experienced what it's like to grow up feeling different," Hu said.
Hu hopes people who watch her film achieve a better understanding of culture and embrace their true selves.
She aims to create more Asian-American representation in each project moving forward and start a necessary dialogue.
"One of my goals as a creator, certainly to show Asian-Americans—in what I describe—as their full complexity, as their whole person. Not just a stereotype," Hu said.
"Lunchbox" debuts at 7:20 p.m. at the Allen Theatre on March 29.
For more information and ways to secure tickets, click here.
For additional details on "Lunchbox", click here.
