This is from Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto, filmmakers of Rebels with a Cause, TRUST: Second Acts in Young Lives, Smitten and Downside UP. Because you’ve liked one or all of those films, we think you will enjoy the gorgeous new digital restoration of their dramatic feature, Thousand Pieces of Gold, directed by Nancy, produced by Kenji, written by Anne Makepeace and starring Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Stream the film starting April 24
For tickets + more info:
BAM-Thousand Pieces of Gold
Film festivals and movie houses have come to a standstill, putting the kibosh on theatrical screenings of magnificent films recently restored by IndieCollect. But starting April 24, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will be streaming Thousand Pieces of Gold. On Wednesday, April 29 at 8PM EDT there will be a livestreamed Q&A with stars Rosalind Chao and Chris Cooper, screenwriter Anne Makepeace, producer Kenji Yamamoto and director Nancy Kelly.
Set in a mining town in the 1880s, Thousand Pieces of Gold was developed by the Sundance Institute and premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 1990. After its theatrical release, Thousand Pieces of Gold& aired on the PBS American Playhouse series, the UK’s Film Four and around the world. Based on the classic novel by Ruthanne Lum McCunn, the film’s screenplay was written by award-winning filmmaker Anne Makepeace (Tribal Justice).
It won immediate acclaim for its portrayal of the real-life story of Lalu (Rosalind Chao), a young Chinese woman whose desperately poor parents sell her into slavery. She is trafficked to a nefarious saloonkeeper in Idaho’s gold country. Eventually Charlie, a man of different ilk, played by Chris Cooper, wins her in a poker game and slowly gains her trust.
Way ahead of its time, the film resonates even more powerfully today in the era of #MeToo. But Nancy Kelly became a victim of prejudice against women directors within the American film industry and was never offered another movie to direct in spite of extraordinary reviews from critics, some of whom compared her talent to that of John Ford.
“A genuine triumph. Independent in the best sense of the word,
Thousand Pieces of Gold gives us the Old West through a piece of
candle-lit silk, hardship diffused through tears and smoke.”
—Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times
50% of ticket sales go to support BAM,
helping to ensure the future of BAM’s adventurous programming.
home use streaming only
