Photo By Steve Ramos

Fresh faces: (L-R) Actress Lynn Chen, writer/director Alice Wu and actress Michelle Krusiec are Saving Face's young up-and-comers.

For publicists in charge of handing out iPods, Xboxes, Levi's jeans and numerous other freebies to the celebrities and filmmakers in attendance, a successful 2005 Sundance Film Festival means cleaned-out shelves at their various "gift houses" and countless photos of stars holding up a shiny Motorola phone.

"They're even giving out fur coats," laughs Alice Wu, who's in Park City, Utah, to support her debut film, the audience-friendly Asian-American mother/daughter drama, Saving Face.

"I thought about taking one for a friend, but I just can't support fur," she says. "I did grab a lot of Xbox games for my friends, though."

It's a weeknight midway into the hectic 10-day January festival, and Wu is celebrating her film with cast and friends at the basement bar of a barbeque restaurant on Park City's crowded Main Street.

Just after Wu's anti-fur digs, down the steps walks Saving Face's marquee star, veteran actress Joan Chen, who's clad in her latest festival gift, a new fur coat.

Wu, a smiling tomboy with straight black hair tucked beneath her stocking hat, laughs even louder at Chen's unintended joke. But she quickly swears everyone around her to secrecy so as not to risk offending Chen.

Of all the women who make up Saving Face, it's Chen who enjoys diva status. But the likable film's spotlight belongs to its next generation of Asian-American film talent, Wu and her two young leads, Lynn Chen and Michelle Krusiec.

Earlier at an 8:30 a.m. Sunday screening, Wu does what every filmmaker is supposed to do at Sundance -- she thanks everyone for getting up early and coming.

In Saving Face, Krusiec plays Wilhemina "Wil" Pang, the high-achieving daughter of widowed Ma (Joan Chen). Lynn Chen is Vivian Shing, a pretty ballet dancer who captures Wil's heart. Adding to the drama is the fact that Ma is a newly pregnant single mother, a definite taboo in their close-knit Asian community of Flushing, Queens.

But the film's core drama centers on Wil hiding her lesbianism from her mother, grandparents and the community at large. The plot twist speaks directly to Wu's own life experiences. She also hid early girlfriends from her family, which makes Saving Face a personal story for her as well as a larger-than-life coming out.

"My biggest fear is how my mom's friends are going to take this film, because I am writing about characters I really love," Wu says, speaking during an afternoon interview with her two young co-stars. "At the same time, I grew up in a very strict Confucius household, and one of the greatest sins you could do is reveal any secrets about your family. But I am also writing about acceptance, and no matter who you are -- Asian or white, gay or straight -- everyone wants to love."

Asked what's worse for a Chinese family, a daughter who's pregnant and unwed or a daughter who's gay, Wu answers quickly.

"Wow. My first thought is I am trying to figure how my mom would feel if I was pregnant instead of gay," she says. "You know, the mother in Saving Face is getting disowned and thrown out of the family house, and she is 48 years old!"

Chen disagrees. "My family would be a lot worse over being pregnant and not being gay. But I have an unusual family."

Krusiec sides with Wu: "I think the gay aspect would be worse."

Saving Face puts the two young actresses in the spotlight for the first time. Chen has appeared on TV and made her stage debut with the Metropolitan Opera. Krusiec has had small roles in the features Pumpkin, Sweet Home Alabama and Cursed.

It's also Wu's debut feature, her first shot at making a reputation. She sums up Saving Face as a romantic comedy about a mother and a daughter struggling to understand each other. She calls it a film about honoring one's heritage and past and still moving forward with tolerance for new things and ideas.

"I think the desire to love is universal, and hearts don't break harder or softer based on your demographic," she says. "I think that's what people are responding to in the film. If you ever got your heart broken or ached for someone, then I think there is something in the film for you."

When asked about Joan Chen's comments at a Sundance screening -- she told the audience that Saving Grace is another Asian-American mother/daughter story, something in the footsteps of The Joy Luck Club -- Wu defends her movie.

"I think that it's never OK to tell someone you're not allowed to tell the story you want to tell," she says emphatically. "Besides, I don't think there is anything wrong with another Asian-American mother/daughter story." ©