January 15, 2020 2:45 pm
Kartemquin is pleased to announce the World Premieres of two feature documentaries at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival, to be held in Austin, Texas this March. SXSW announced their full line-up today with plans to announce exact screening times at a later date.
These two thought provoking non-fiction films cover advocacy for the democratization of sexual pleasure for women, and the story of a family coping with the disappearance of their daughter. Congratulations to both teams!
Kartemquin’s SXSW 2020 Features:
The Dilemma of Desire
Directed by Maria Finitzo
Produced by Maria Finitzo, Cynthia Kane, Diane Quon
Screening in the SXSW Documentary Spotlight
Finding Yingying
Directed by Jiayan “Jenny” Shi
Produced by Jiayan “Jenny” Shi, Brent E. Huffman, Diane Quon
Screening in the SXSW Documentary Feature Competition
The Dilemma of Desire
Peabody Award-winning director Maria Finitzo advocates for the democratization of sexual pleasure in her newest feature film, The Dilemma of Desire.
The Dilemma of Desire follows a conceptual artist, two scientists, and an industrial designer who are using their work to shatter the myths and outright lies women have been taught about their sexual desire and their bodies. Committed to the truth, call it “Cliteracy”– the acknowledgement and understanding that the clitoris is fundamental to the female orgasm – these four compelling women address gender inequality in one of the most personal spheres of a woman’s life: sexual desire and pleasure.
Finitzo (Mapping Stem Cell Research: Terra Incognita) and producers Cynthia Kane (Sundance Channel, ITVS, Al Jazeera America) and Diane Quon (Minding the Gap), backed by 4-time Academy Award nominated production house Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams), have assembled a powerful group of female collaborators, including Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA) as executive producer, Ro*Co Films as Global Sales Agents, and a board of advisors that includes iconic feminist activist Gloria Steinem, The Vagina Monologues creator Eve Ensler, legendary feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan (In a Different Voice), and Cynthia Lopez, Executive Director of New York Women in Film and Television.
At SXSW, Finitzo will also be joined by two of the film’s participants, Ti Chang (CRAVE tech co-founder and designer) and Dr. Stacey Dutton (leading the biological study of the clitoris), and moderator Deborah Tolman (co-founder of SPARK: Sexualization Protest: Action, Resistance, Knowledge, author of Dilemmas of Desire: Teenage Girls Talk about Sexuality) for a South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conference panel titled “The Politics of Pleasure: Can We Come Together?” on March 17th at 12:30pm.
Finding Yingying
In her debut feature, Chicago-based documentary filmmaker and video journalist Jiayan “Jenny” Shi presents an intimate portrait of a family coping with grief and a long wait for justice in a foreign land.
In Finding YingYing, Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese student, comes to the U.S. to study. In her detailed and beautiful diaries, the aspiring young scientist and teacher is full of optimism, hoping to also be married and a mother someday. Within weeks of her arrival, Yingying disappears from the campus. Through exclusive access to Yingying’s family and boyfriend, Finding Yingying closely follows their journey as they search to unravel the mystery of her disappearance and seek justice for their daughter while navigating a strange, foreign country. But most of all, Finding Yingying is the story of who Yingying was: a talented young woman loved by her family and friends.
Shi, a graduate of the 2018 Diverse Voices in Docs (DVID) fellowship cohort, and producers Diane Quon (Minding the Gap) and Brent E. Huffman (Saving Mes Aynak), and co-producer Shilin Sun, are backed by 4-time Academy Award-nominated production house Kartemquin Films (Hoop Dreams), and Mark Mitten (Abacus: Small Enough To Jail) and Ken Pelletier (Icarus, One Child Nation) among the executive producers, and co-executive producers Shizuka Asakawa, Cherry Chen and Peng Zhao. CAA and Submarine Entertainment are the Global Sales Agents. The board of advisors includes Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning Hollywood producer Janet Yang (Empire of the Sun, The Joy Luck Club), former Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagements under President Barack Obama, Brad Jenkins, Juliet Sorenson(Executive Director of Integrity Watch), Andy Kang (Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago), and Xiaoli Zhou, award-winning documentary director and producer.