Things That Fall
2019 · 9m · USA
Directed by Sy Huq
Tones: contemplative, tender, tense
A college student tormented by the auditory hallucinations of schizophrenia struggles through his exams until he notices a deaf classmate in the library and tries to make a connection on her terms.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the sound design pivot to feel like a sermon about empathy, but Huq actually uses silence as a destabilizing move—the real provocation isn't the disabled love interest, it's that the film refuses to resolve the schizophrenia through connection, just temporarily sidesteps it.
The formal architecture here is instructive: Huq's sound design recalls experimental documentary practice while the visual grammar nods to classic cinema's use of editing to denote interiority, creating a dialogue between sensory modes that feels both contemporary and rooted in technique.
The decision to literally remove sound design the moment two characters meet—to let the protagonist experience the world as his deaf classmate does—is economical and devastating in a way that justifies every technical choice before it; it's not about representing schizophrenia, it's about one person momentarily escaping their own neurology through proximity to another's.
Reviews
What makes Things that Fall work is that it doesn't neglect its responsibilities as either a film or a mental health awareness advertisement.
Sy Huq trusts the audience to emotionally engage with the film, thanks in large part to his effective direction.
Festivals
- Austin Film Festival 2019
- Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival 2020
- Raindance Film Festival 2019
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2019
- LA Shorts International Film Festival 2019
- AT&T Film Awards 2019, New Forms of Storytelling
- Stage 32 Short Film Contest 2019, Winner