Audience Award, 2025 Locarno Film Festival
Official Selection, 2025 Tribeca Film Festival

Single mother Irene (Lucy Liu) runs a printing shop in Rosemead, California, while caring for her teenage son Joe (Lawrence Shou), who has long struggled with schizophrenia. As if her recent terminal cancer diagnosis weren’t enough, Irene’s fears multiply when she begins to suspect that Joe is fantasizing about a mass shooting at his school. Battling a broken system and her own declining health, she resolves to protect her son no matter the cost.

What can she do? It’s a question that lingers with devastating weight and quiet horror by the film’s end. Inspired by true events, ROSEMEAD confronts the stigma surrounding mental illness within the Asian American community, especially in a society that too often fails to support them. At the heart of the film lies a raw, unflinching portrayal of motherhood–not as a virtue, but as a desperate, relentless fight against one’s own prejudice and a world that offers no help–brought to life in a career-defining, soul-baring performance by the extraordinary Lucy Liu.

– Wentao Ma

FREE pre-screening reception 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM for All-Fest Pass and Centerpiece ticketholders.