FILM REVIEWS
★★★★★
Alien Citizen combines compelling storytelling with thought-provoking insights into the complexities of identity and belonging. The documentary offers a rich and enlightening theatrical experience. Highly Recommended. Editor’s Choice.
J. Zimmerman, VideoLibrarian.com
︎︎
Funny, dramatic, passionate, heartbreaking, and engaging...While specific to one woman’s life, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey is as mind-engaging and heart-touching as solo performances get, and with Liang’s one-woman show now available for worldwide home-and-school viewing, its informative, inspiring journey has only just begun.
Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA Fim Review
︎︎
Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey is like an anthem for those who grow up internationally... Elizabeth Liang’s gripping film and performance is a godsend for international educators grappling to find creative ways to address difficult, complex issues relating to racism and inequalities that speak to both children and adults... Be prepared to cry and laugh (hard) at the same time... Covering everything from mobility, identity confusion, racism, class prejudice and sexism to eating disorders, Liang is able to distill the essence of these difficult and deeply personal experiences and present them in a manner no scholar possibly could. And she does it with superb comic timing. The film is a dynamic viewing experience thanks to director Sofie Calderon and editor Daniel Lawrence... Liang is a master storyteller... Alien Citizen gives voice to what your students already know but are rarely invited to talk about. Indeed, it is a film that you ‘feel’ as much as you see.
Dr. Danau Tanu, author of Growing Up in Transit, for The EARCOS Triannual Journal
︎︎
Her stories are rich and funny and painful and heartbreaking. And while they’re unique to her, they will resonate with others who understand the significance of such terms as 'home base-ish' and 'transition fatigue' and 'foreign school'....In Alien Citizen, Liang gives a vivid, outside-in view of the places where she’s lived, where the mundane becomes exotic and the exotic mundane. There’s drumming on turtle shells during Christmas celebrations in Guatemala, walking barefoot across the road to buy orange Fanta in Panama, wind surfing in Morocco, and riding in a car spinning on the ice in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It’s because she’s given herself 'permission to speak of the pain' that she can be grateful for all the wonderful things she’s experienced. And through Alien Citizen, we get to experience it all, too.
Craig Thompson, Clearing Customs
︎︎
Told in beautifully written and poignantly acted vignettes about her life, Liang’s [film] is dynamic and vivid. She uses her physicality to marvelous effect as she embodies each of the different people she’s encountered, from her family and friends to everyone else in between, with vocal precision...I found myself nodding along to so many of Liang’s anecdotes and analyses about her experiences, even though we have a vastly different catalog of places we are from and lived...Alien Citizen is heart-wrenching and painfully honest, but it is also really funny...her charismatic performance works as both a play and a movie. This is no small feat. Sofie Calderon’s directing is spot on...There are so many third culture kids in the world, and Liang’s show encapsulates so much of our collective experience, even if individual details are different...Alien Citizen will help anyone confused by what it means to be a Third Culture Kid understand both the hardships, as well as the joys of this kind of life.
Sezín Koehler, Black Girl Nerds
︎︎
I was riveted...Liang allows us inside her struggles and triumphs and brings them full circle in a way that helped me more fully understand mine. By being real about the pains, she freed me to experience the joys in the rich, nuanced way that is real life...I loved how Liang took the freedom to break into Spanish or Arabic during her story...By using all her languages in “Alien Citizen,” Liang brings closer the people who can follow her and also envelops the stragglers, carrying them over the hump into something more—a world where we are not just different but also the same, one where tone and gesture speak as loudly as vocabulary...I could go on for pages about the things I related to in Liang’s show...But I don’t want to rob you of the experience of watching it and seeing what you, global nomad or not, might relate to, too. Because we’re all a little alien sometimes, no matter where we come from or where we’re living right now...From Liang I learned about who I was, am, and want to be. And I’m grateful.
Isla McKetta, A Geography of Reading
︎︎
There are times when you’re about to fall off your chair laughing, only to find yourself tearing up in the next scene. She tells it all, the privileged and exciting, but also the challenging and frustrating sides of growing up as a TCK, having to move and leave behind one life, only to have to adapt to a new one, again and again. Every TCK can relate to her story, which she tells so vividly with her amazing acting, that you feel like you were almost there with her in that memory...honest and raw, hilarious and heartbreaking...I invite all TCK’s and their parents to watch Elizabeth Liang’s breathtaking performance in her show Alien Citizen, which will help you recognize, relate to, and understand some things that TCK’s experience growing up.
Deniz Keskinel, Connecting the Pieces: Expat Kids Club Blog
︎︎
It’ll make you laugh, cry, yell “HELL YES!” at the screen...Elizabeth’s linguistic skills and ability to mimic accents and mannerisms brings the colourful characters to life...As so much of the piece resonated with me, as it will for many migrants, I found myself wishing all my friends and family who struggle to understand my lifestyle would also watch it and understand me better...In Elizabeth’s audience we get a sense of belonging, of feeling non-alien.
Victoria Mitchell, Huffington Post contributor, Freelance Writer, Blogger, Content Creator
︎︎
Once again, we experienced the power of storytelling for creating awareness, healing through sharing, and revealing what still needs first aid...she stokes laughter of recognition from the innards of her audience...she offers something that others can somehow relate to in their own stories and start to accept with a chuckle...Liang explores her story with force of fact and confession of impact but does not whine or blame. Rather her performance is powered by an empathetic ownership for her past that connects her with her audience.
Dr. George Simons & the diversophy® Team
Alien Citizen combines compelling storytelling with thought-provoking insights into the complexities of identity and belonging. The documentary offers a rich and enlightening theatrical experience. Highly Recommended. Editor’s Choice.
J. Zimmerman, VideoLibrarian.com
︎︎
Funny, dramatic, passionate, heartbreaking, and engaging...While specific to one woman’s life, Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey is as mind-engaging and heart-touching as solo performances get, and with Liang’s one-woman show now available for worldwide home-and-school viewing, its informative, inspiring journey has only just begun.
Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA Fim Review
︎︎
Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey is like an anthem for those who grow up internationally... Elizabeth Liang’s gripping film and performance is a godsend for international educators grappling to find creative ways to address difficult, complex issues relating to racism and inequalities that speak to both children and adults... Be prepared to cry and laugh (hard) at the same time... Covering everything from mobility, identity confusion, racism, class prejudice and sexism to eating disorders, Liang is able to distill the essence of these difficult and deeply personal experiences and present them in a manner no scholar possibly could. And she does it with superb comic timing. The film is a dynamic viewing experience thanks to director Sofie Calderon and editor Daniel Lawrence... Liang is a master storyteller... Alien Citizen gives voice to what your students already know but are rarely invited to talk about. Indeed, it is a film that you ‘feel’ as much as you see.
Dr. Danau Tanu, author of Growing Up in Transit, for The EARCOS Triannual Journal
︎︎
Her stories are rich and funny and painful and heartbreaking. And while they’re unique to her, they will resonate with others who understand the significance of such terms as 'home base-ish' and 'transition fatigue' and 'foreign school'....In Alien Citizen, Liang gives a vivid, outside-in view of the places where she’s lived, where the mundane becomes exotic and the exotic mundane. There’s drumming on turtle shells during Christmas celebrations in Guatemala, walking barefoot across the road to buy orange Fanta in Panama, wind surfing in Morocco, and riding in a car spinning on the ice in Fairfield County, Connecticut. It’s because she’s given herself 'permission to speak of the pain' that she can be grateful for all the wonderful things she’s experienced. And through Alien Citizen, we get to experience it all, too.
Craig Thompson, Clearing Customs
︎︎
Told in beautifully written and poignantly acted vignettes about her life, Liang’s [film] is dynamic and vivid. She uses her physicality to marvelous effect as she embodies each of the different people she’s encountered, from her family and friends to everyone else in between, with vocal precision...I found myself nodding along to so many of Liang’s anecdotes and analyses about her experiences, even though we have a vastly different catalog of places we are from and lived...Alien Citizen is heart-wrenching and painfully honest, but it is also really funny...her charismatic performance works as both a play and a movie. This is no small feat. Sofie Calderon’s directing is spot on...There are so many third culture kids in the world, and Liang’s show encapsulates so much of our collective experience, even if individual details are different...Alien Citizen will help anyone confused by what it means to be a Third Culture Kid understand both the hardships, as well as the joys of this kind of life.
Sezín Koehler, Black Girl Nerds
︎︎
I was riveted...Liang allows us inside her struggles and triumphs and brings them full circle in a way that helped me more fully understand mine. By being real about the pains, she freed me to experience the joys in the rich, nuanced way that is real life...I loved how Liang took the freedom to break into Spanish or Arabic during her story...By using all her languages in “Alien Citizen,” Liang brings closer the people who can follow her and also envelops the stragglers, carrying them over the hump into something more—a world where we are not just different but also the same, one where tone and gesture speak as loudly as vocabulary...I could go on for pages about the things I related to in Liang’s show...But I don’t want to rob you of the experience of watching it and seeing what you, global nomad or not, might relate to, too. Because we’re all a little alien sometimes, no matter where we come from or where we’re living right now...From Liang I learned about who I was, am, and want to be. And I’m grateful.
Isla McKetta, A Geography of Reading
︎︎
There are times when you’re about to fall off your chair laughing, only to find yourself tearing up in the next scene. She tells it all, the privileged and exciting, but also the challenging and frustrating sides of growing up as a TCK, having to move and leave behind one life, only to have to adapt to a new one, again and again. Every TCK can relate to her story, which she tells so vividly with her amazing acting, that you feel like you were almost there with her in that memory...honest and raw, hilarious and heartbreaking...I invite all TCK’s and their parents to watch Elizabeth Liang’s breathtaking performance in her show Alien Citizen, which will help you recognize, relate to, and understand some things that TCK’s experience growing up.
Deniz Keskinel, Connecting the Pieces: Expat Kids Club Blog
︎︎
It’ll make you laugh, cry, yell “HELL YES!” at the screen...Elizabeth’s linguistic skills and ability to mimic accents and mannerisms brings the colourful characters to life...As so much of the piece resonated with me, as it will for many migrants, I found myself wishing all my friends and family who struggle to understand my lifestyle would also watch it and understand me better...In Elizabeth’s audience we get a sense of belonging, of feeling non-alien.
Victoria Mitchell, Huffington Post contributor, Freelance Writer, Blogger, Content Creator
︎︎
Once again, we experienced the power of storytelling for creating awareness, healing through sharing, and revealing what still needs first aid...she stokes laughter of recognition from the innards of her audience...she offers something that others can somehow relate to in their own stories and start to accept with a chuckle...Liang explores her story with force of fact and confession of impact but does not whine or blame. Rather her performance is powered by an empathetic ownership for her past that connects her with her audience.
Dr. George Simons & the diversophy® Team
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AUDIENCE RESPONSE
AUDIENCE RESPONSE
It is so incredibly moving. Such a great resource for trainings and classroom discussions about important topics of identity, belonging, and being a global and multiethnic person.
Farzana Nayani, Diversity & Inclusion and Intercultural Specialist
I've used Alien Citizen in many settings with TCKs--with great results. Some have even 'confronted' me, asking why this powerful piece of art is not shown at EVERY TCK event. Thank you Lisa for your gifts to all of us.
Michael V. Pollock, Director at DARAJA, Third Culture Coach, Author, TCK Care Specialist & Consultant
If you want to spend 90 minutes laughing and crying, this is what you need to watch. This film of her one-woman show is galvanizing—Lisa Liang has nailed the Third Culture Kid/Global Nomad experience in all its highs and lows. Thank you, Lisa, for helping me revisit and uncover those extraordinary experiences, and relive the emotions. Your courage has helped me in my continuous search to find closure.
Cookie F., Intercultural Trainer and Adult TCK
Alien Citizen is a must watch. Wish it could be seen around the world...From one TCK to another - Thank you.
Marilyn Gardner, Speaker, Blogger, Author of Worlds Apart
Thank you so much. Your movie has, once again, managed to reach the hearts of the people that were lucky to be there with us. The community loved it and it has raised a few new questions for us to work together as a group.
Carolina Porto, FIGT Brazil
It spoke to us on many levels. The timing couldn’t be better. I’m on the cusp of my next assignment overseas and we don’t know how to tell our daughter we’ll be moving… But one very important new thing Alien Citizen helped realize: don’t force our daughter to suppress her feelings to reinforce my glass-half-full outlook... Thank you again.
Peter E., State Dept Foreign Service Officer
I'm so glad I finally saw this performance. It's so powerful, brought me to tears...you have done something amazing.
Janneke Muyselaar-Jellema, from DrieCulturen: Blogger, ATCK, Medical Doctor
...a fantastic, thought-provoking, hilarious, poignant performance, screening and discussion...Your voice is much-needed and much-appreciated by members of the mixed race and third-culture communities.
Maria Leonard Olsen, Esq., Attorney, Radio Show Host, Author
It was wonderful to watch. You've done good. You've left a lasting imprint on a tribe called TCK.
Isabelle Min, CEO, Transition Catalyst Korea Institute
It was amazing! I laughed and cried…I didn't want it to end. I'm sure it will continue to give others a better understanding of what it's like to be a TCK.
Missy R., Writer
Profound and extraordinary and wonderful—like being swooped into deep space. We were carried away.
C.O. Moed, Writer-Photographer
I was floored by the story line and performance. So impressive! I laughed out loud and cried—fantastic. The interviews at the end add a lot, too.
Theodore H., Computer scientist
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Alien Citizen: An Earth Odyssey - A film by HapaLis Prods