Will You Look At Me
2022 · 20m · China
Directed by Shuli Huang
Genres: documentary
Tones: melancholic, tender
Chinese filmmaker Shuli Huang returns to his hometown and, through a pivotal conversation with his mother, navigates her disapproval of his homosexuality and his choice of art over conventional career.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A film that earns its Cannes Queer Palm not through spectacle but through an almost unbearable intimacy — Huang watching his mother, the camera watching Huang — a formal act of love that also implicates the viewer.
Cannes Queer Palm and Sundance Jury Award. Super 8 first-person essay to mother about being gay — this is exactly the kind of film that earns its festival hardware.
Queer Palm at Cannes 2022 and Sundance Jury Award — Huang shooting on Super 8, directing, lensing, and editing his own conversation with his mother about being gay. The first-person grain is the conviction.
Reviews
Shuli Huang's short film sounds like a long poem interspersed with magnificent portraits, contrasted by the reality of a strict society.
Festivals
- Festival de Cannes — La Semaine de la Critique 2022, Queer Palm — Best Short Film
- Sundance Film Festival 2023, Short Film Jury Award