Back by popular demand, Suzi Yoonessi's Dear Lemon Lima is having an impromptu third screening in Los Angeles at Landmark 8 this Saturday at 4:15 PM after to two sold-out screenings on the 20th and 23rd.
Dear Lemon Lima, an All-Roads Seed Grant recipient, tells the story of 13-year-old Vanessa Lemor, a Yu'pik girl with a vivid imagination. After getting dumped by her true love, she rallies with her fellow misfits, including a bi-racial girl named Nothing and a pathological liar who claims that Puff Daddy is her father, to compete in the Snowstorm Survivor Competition, her prep school's bastardized version of the World Eskimo Indian Olympics.
The film was originally inspired by director Suzi Yoonessi's childhood diary, which is a "rainbow-studded, tragic and funny compilation of letters to [her] imaginary friend Lemon Lima." As Yoonessi flipped through the pages, she was struck by genuine amount of passion, sincerity and heartbreak that was communicated in each passage. With Dear Lemon Lima, the director intends to prove that "every human connection deserves the love and compassion that a 13-year-old girl embraces the world with."
Yoonessi's award-winning short version of "Dear Lemon Lima" (2007) played internationally in over 60 festivals including the Tribeca Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival. Suzi Yoonessi has also directed Vern (2004) and No Shoulder (2005), and her producing credits include 3 Weeks After Paradise (2002), Vern (2004), Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), and Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody? (2005).
"Suzi Yoonessi's delicious debut makes the life of her Alaskan teenage heroine as colorful and sweet as a snow cone." - Jonathan Wysocki of the Los Angeles Film Festival
"...one of the most affecting and poised performances by a 13-year-old we've seen in quite some time." - Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine
"...as refreshing as an Astro-Pop on a summer's day." - The Los Angeles Times
Article by Claire Ensslin
