“Dìdi” director Sean Wang at the opening night of SFFILM 2024

'I have'

Courtesy of the Sundance Institute

Like many debut films from coming-of-age directors Didi (弟弟) is semi-autobiographical, but Sean Wang's personal background played as big a role in the making of the film as it did in inspiring its narrative.

The film, which was acquired by Focus after winning the US Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance in January, is tonight's opening night film at SFFILM, the festival in Wang's hometown. Both festivals played a role in the film's development, with Wang receiving several grants and fellowships along his path to the screen, including a 2022 SFFILM Rainin Grant. Through his time at Google Creative Lab before becoming a professional filmmaker, he also held a unique cinematic toolkit that allowed him to tell a hyper-specific story about growing up during adolescence on social media.

Finally, not only does Wang portray a fictionalized version of his family unit in the film, with Joan Chen playing the mother of protagonist Chris (Izaac Wang), but he also cast one of his real-life grandmothers, memorably featured in his Oscar nomination. Nominated Documentary Short Film Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó, as – who else? – Chris' grandmother.

What role has SFFILM played in your journey?

For me, SFFILM has always been the flagship festival in the Bay Area, but also in general. They have such a global presence and it means so much to me personally before they ever supported me as a filmmaker. I grew up in Fremont, California. I didn't know any other filmmakers. I didn't get my start through what you would call independent film. First they were skate videos and then short films on the internet. It was only later that I found out about SFFILM and similar films Fruitvale Station And Medicine against melancholy and I realized that there was this collective of Bay Area filmmakers and films supported by SFFILM that really shaped me.

Especially for I have, the financial support they gave me through the Rainin Scholarships really gave me time to write. I can direct and edit at the same time and juggle multiple projects, but when I'm writing I really need to focus on other areas of my life, like making money. The Rainin grants allowed me to think: Okay, the time that I would normally devote to commercial work, I'm just going to take two months and see if there's something to do with the script here.

And the beauty of Rainin was that every month you were paired with a different mentor in the industry, so every month I could share the script with someone who had objective eyes. They were incredibly critical and thoughtful about it, I got amazing notes, I went and wrote, and then the next month I sent it to someone new, and every single month I felt like I was dropping the ball Forward, by the end of the Rainin fellowship cycle I was like, I'm ready to make this film. So SFFILM really made it feel real.

What aspects of that experience did you really want to bring to life when you set out to tell your own semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story?

When I look back on my childhood and the things that my friends and I remember, it's mostly during that time. We describe it as the time when you are the worst version of yourself and having the time of your life. All of our crazy, crazy, and funny stories come from middle school. It wasn't until I was in my early 20s that I had enough distance and realized a lot of things that had shaped me in ways that I wasn't even aware of, like in that movie where people say, “You're the coolest Asian guy I know.” ” ” or “You're cute for an Asian.” When I was 13 I thought that was a compliment, and when I was 20 I thought that was a backhand. But you don't have that vocabulary at 13, only when you look back.

The core of the idea was: What if you made a film like this? Stand by Me but set it in Fremont and star it as kids who looked, talked, and felt like the kids I grew up with? What does that do to the story? Eventually, each exercise became more and more specific. And hopefully this hyperspecificity is also an opportunity. Because look at the American canon of coming-of-age films about the adolescent experience – in 2018 Eighth class And Mid 90s came out, and Lady Bird came out the year before — and all their posters only show the protagonist's face, huge. The poster about a 13-year-old Asian American boy that actually has a place in the culture doesn't exist. This is an opportunity. If all of these films use hyperspecificity to look at this genre from a different angle, we can do the same and offer a completely new film.

I noticed that Aneesh Chaganty is thanked in the credits and there are elements of the way to use the second screen I have that reminded me of that Seek. Did you meet when you both worked at Google?

Aneesh is a dear friend. He was such a mentor without saying, “I'm your mentor.” We both grew up in the Bay Area and both graduated from USC. I met him when he sold the parking space Seek and left Google to do it. I basically took over his job when he left. In that first year at Google, I felt like I was learning a language of filmmaking that no one else really knew, which was the language of technology and how we use these screens and interfaces that we use every day in a way that feels familiar , feel human and emotional and use them in a storytelling container. I thought, what do I do with all this knowledge in a useful and new way? Well, MySpace, AIM, none of that was really presented in a way that I thought was honest about the way kids use the Internet. That said, we didn't want our internet to feel like that The social network. We didn't want it to be anything like hacker music. We wanted you to hear the mouse movements, the breathing, and what it feels like to actually sit in front of your computer. But that's not cinematic when you think about using the Internet. They feel like they have to use bells and whistles to make it feel alive, and I think I know the bells and whistles, and that's a joke [the camera] on the screen instead of the person and using all the cursor movements and backspace keys to create the drama. And so Aneesh and I talked about it a lot. He watched a rough cut of the film and had lots of great comments on the most specific film themes imaginable. He said, “This scene is great, but once you get the After Effects setting…”

Your cast includes everyone from Joan Chen to your own wài pó (maternal grandmother) playing Chris'nǎi nai (paternal grandmother). Tell me how you incorporate both.

In short: I am the happiest director ever. Joan is not only a screen legend, but also a Bay Area legend – she lives in San Francisco. We thought if Joan did that, it would be great because she's awesome…plus her travel expenses would be so affordable for us. We sent her the script and she read it and we met for coffee in San Francisco. She told me, “I'd like to do the movie, but I want you to want me to do the movie.” I thought, what? You give me the luxury of choice? No director understands that. She said, “I'll do a screen test for you, I just want you to make sure you want me to do the movie.” We left the coffee and I texted her a minute later and said, “Yeah, let's do it.” Let’s make the film together.”

I was always very excited about this opportunity with my grandmother. We had already made the short film together. While we were bringing Joan along, I was reading with my grandma and I kept saying to her, “You're going to be in our movie, aren't you?” She said, If you have that much trust in me, I'll think about it. And then there came a point where I just felt like it was the right thing to do. The first day when Joan and my grandma had a scene together, I was sweating a lot because if this movie doesn't work, it can't be my grandma's fault. I didn't want to embarrass her. We rehearsed the scene and Joan put her hand on my shoulder. She said, “You don’t have to worry. She is unbelievable.”

Joan gave the film a very special gift. Many experienced actors or actresses might ask, “What kind of movie is this with all these inexperienced actors and this debut director who cast his grandma?” I worked with Ang Lee!” On paper, that sounds like a recipe for a disaster, but she saw what we were trying to achieve. She really made the set a place where someone like Grandma, who had never acted before, could try things out, feel safe and see what happened. She stayed on set, did origami with my grandma and hung out with her daughter and everyone else on set. I look back on this whole experience and can't believe we have someone like Joan who gives so much to us. It was so special.

How did your grandmother react to all of this?

She says, “How did I stumble here? “That’s what it’s like when you have a director’s grandson and you just get involved in these films?” (Laughs.) But I think she really enjoys it. Wài Pó in particular still has a bit of stamina, as she is in her early to mid 80s and has just enough youthfulness in her frame to actually be able to do some of these things. These things she does have never even occurred to her as an option in life. All the hustle and bustle of going to Sundance, being nominated for an Oscar, being on the red carpet, for my grandmas it was like, “What the fuck? You asked us to be in your little films, we had no idea you were going to go to the movies and those red carpets.” I thought, “I didn't know that either!”

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.