Program Note

 A feature debut of Desiree AKHAVAN, who made a name for herself with the lesbian webisode, The Slope. AKHAVAN, who was selected as one of \"25 New Faces of Independent Film\" by Filmmaker Magazine in 2012, is an actress and screenwriter exceptionally good at comedy genre films. The film moves back and forth between Shirin and Maxine, who come to know each other, move in together, and break up eventually. Much inspired by Woody ALLEN\'s Annie Hall, AKHAVAN delivers a New Yorkerspecific black humor in a more sarcastic and remote sentiment, dancing through time. Three aspects of life is intertwined around Shirin, performed by AKHAVAN herself: everyday life of lesbian couples of Shirin and Maxine, Shirin\'s coming out in front of her Iranian family, and Shirin\'s everyday life as a professional of an after-school substitute teacher. That is, Shirin is not only a woman and bisexual, but also a city dweller with a professional job who is an Iranial-Amercian, and colored. Gender identity is one of many factors which determine a person\'s identity, and there are still more grey zones to be dealt with for the integration of identities between gender identity and other identities. [Sunah KIM]