Classics of Lesbian Cinema in “Sapph-O-Rama”

In 2019, the festival was the site of Lulu Wang’s semi-autobiographical breakthrough, “The Farewell,” which was, as the opening text informed us, “based on an actual lie.” The film follows a Chinese American writer named Billi (Awkwafina) as she returns to Changchun from New York to join the rest of her family in saying goodbye to her grandmother, Nai Nai, who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer—a fact of which Nai Nai remains blissfully unaware. It was moving, singular, and surprisingly funny: the best of what Sundance can be.