Kate Tsang brings Sarahfest 21 to a "Marvelous" Conclusion

On November 3 & 4, the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies at the University of Mississippi will host a screening, craft talk, and public reception for artist, filmmaker, and Emmy-nominated writer Kate Tsang. Her debut film, Marvelous and the Black Hole, will be screened at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at the Oxford Studio Cinema on West Jackson Avenue. Her craft talk will be at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 4, in 327 Lamar Hall with a reception to follow in the Stark Family Garden at The Inn at Ole Miss. All events are free and open to the public.

Kate Tsang is an artist, filmmaker, and Emmy-nominated writer creating imaginative, offbeat stories with heart. On the TV side, Kate has written on the hit shows Adventure Time: Distant Lands (HBO Max) And Steven Universe Future (Cartoon Network), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy. Her award-winning live-action and animated shorts So You've Grown Attached and Welcome To Doozy have been watched by millions online and broadcasted nationally on PBS.

Marvelous and the Black Hole, which was a favorite at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, is a coming-of-age story that blends fantasy and realism to capture the world of a troubled teen named Sammy, who is befriended by a kid’s party magician named Margot, played by Cheers’ Rhea Perlman. The pair's unexpected friendship enables Sammy to learn sleight-of-hand magic and heal from her mother’s untimely death and her family’s dysfunction. 

“I was ... influenced a lot by fantasy films by Tim Burton and [Steven] Spielberg, but they never had anybody that looked like me in them,” said Tsang in an interview for the Sundance Festival on moveablefest.com, “so I wanted to make Marvelous as a way to make something for my younger self, to see myself in a film like this.”

Tsang describes her own lonely adolescence where she turned to coming-of-age and fantasy films to imagine a life she wanted to live. She also developed a very close relationship with her grandfather, similar to that of Sammy and Margot, when he would tell her what she believed were made-up fairy tales at night to try to ease her chronic insomnia, but were in fact stories based on his own experiences in Japanese-occupied Hong Kong. 

“He taught me the power of taking something painful and making it beautiful and powerful for someone else,” Tsang said.

The film is being brought to Oxford as part of Sarahfest through the Isom Center’s partnership with OxFilm and the Department of Theater and Film. Additionally, the event is being sponsored by the Department of English, the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, the Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union, and the Cinema Minor program.

Come experience the magic of Marvelous and the Black Hole at a free screening on November 3, followed by a craft talk and public reception for Tsang on November 4. 

For information about the event and to request disability services, visit https://www.sarahfest.rocks.