Umbilical
2019 · 7m · China/USA
Directed by Danski Tang
Genres: animation, documentary, experimental
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
An animated documentary in which director Danski Tang interviews her mother about the domestic violence she endured from Tang's father, exploring how that abuse and the cultural pressure to conceal it shaped both their lives. Through hand-drawn animation, mother and daughter work toward mutual understanding across the divide of Tang's childhood in China.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Daughter interviews her mother about her father's abuse, rendered in delicate watercolor. The form is the only thing keeping this from being a clean 'painful and important' submission to the Therapy Cinema Olympics — but the form is real.
Tang's watercolor animation transforms an intergenerational conversation about domestic violence into something closer to private correspondence made visible — the lineage of Brenda Chapman and Daisy Jacobs, with Locarno's imprimatur. A documentary that earns its lyricism through structural honesty.
7 minutes of hand-drawn watercolor animation built around an actual recorded conversation with her mother about domestic violence — the medium softens nothing, just gives the testimony a place to breathe. Locarno selection and 27K views; the form-content match is the whole craft argument.
Reviews
Sharp, concise, and revealing, this short addresses not just a personal issue of suffering, but also inserts the greater cultural context.
A tender and simple style that examines the intricacies of gender and the unique bond between mother and child.
Festivals
- Locarno Film Festival 2019, Silver Leopard (Pardino d'argento SRG SSR)
- New Orleans Film Festival 2020, Jury Award
- AFI Fest 2020, Special Mention for Animation
- Chicago Underground Film Festival 2020, Helen Hill Animation Award
- DOXA Documentary Film Festival 2020, Best Short Documentary
- Ann Arbor Film Festival 2020, Eileen Maitland Award
- San Diego Asian Film Festival 2019, Best Animated Short
- Slamdance Film Festival 2020, Honorable Mention