Grief is a Little Bridge: A Short Film Review

"No Crying at the Dinner Table"

★★★★★★★★☆☆

Photo from: IMDB

    Do you remember a moment when you were awake at an ungodly hour, lying on your bed and hearing the small buzzes from your phone, but you just didn't feel like succumbing to its magnetic force and burying yourself in the harsh light of its screen again for an hour or two? For a fleeting second, reality was all there is and you sighed, realizing that such an empty moment was a reminder that you can be so still and yet so alive sometimes.

    Because I was in that kind of moment last day, I convinced myself that my mind was in the perfect condition to focus on a little indie film displaying what seemed to be a trivial daily life event: dinnertime with family. 

Photo from: Version Industries

    "No Crying at the Dinner Table" is a 16-minute documentary film by Carol Nguyen in which she interviews her family members with personal questions and have them hear the whole process again individually.

    Nguyen successfully conjoined the art of simplicity and silent intimacy in such a short visual play by vividly capturing the warm setting of their own house and the familiar activities of the people living in it. Momentary quietness and seconds of soft musical interludes brought forth a relaxing atmosphere in the background without making the viewers sense a feeling of emptiness but rather an immersive grasp of reality. 

Photo from: The New Yorker

    The heart of this craft has managed to teach about the effect of silence as a powerful cinematic element and how grief can be a little bridge connecting us to our family, transcending the fear of generational gap and cultural barriers considering the fact that the characters are Vietnamese people living in Canada. The raw confessions and post-interview reflections of her family have given me a meaningful experience as an audience. 

-Cynen S.S, who wrote this sleepless and hungry