Diana Cam Van Nguyen: special screening
Love, Dad – Diana Cam Van Nguyen
CZ/SK / 2021 / 13’ / Animated Documentary
A short film about ties and gaps between a child and a parent. The author rediscovers letters her dad used to write her from prison. That love seems to be gone now. She decides to write back in hope to find the connection again. She puts in writing what could not be said: blaming him for family ́s break-up but also trying to understand.
“Love, Dad is an animated documentary about losing connection with my father and me trying to win it back. In the past, me and my dad were separated by prison bars, these days we are separated again, but emotionally this time.
When I was 11 years old, he wrote to me letters from prison that were full of love. I grew up, our relationship changed and such acts of love seem to disappear. I am sorry for the distance between us. Now, 15 years later I am answering to dad ́s letters from prison, addressing his deeds that made our family break up at the end and trying to understand him.
The film is built around voice-over presenting letters of both – me and my dad. The image plays with the material of the letters and those „tie-gap“ symbolics. It also reflects how I feel through the family history again. Through this film I am rediscovering dad‘s love for me.”
Diana Cam Van Nguyen
Diana Cam Van Nguyen (1993, Cheb) is a Czech-Vietnamese director based in Prague. She studied at the Department of Animation Film in FAMU in Prague. She took part in internships in Birmingham and Lyon and participated as artist in residence in Vienna. In her works she focuses on personal topics through the means of animated documentary. Her short films have been selected at festivals as Locarno FF, Toronto IFF, IFF Rotterdam and IDFA. Apart (2018) was a finalist in BAFTA Student Film Award 2019. Her latest short Love, Dad (2021) won BFI Short Film Award, Clermont-Ferrand Connexion Award and got a TIFF Special mention. It has been awarded for Best Animation and Best Documentary at the Academy Qualifying festivals AFI Fest, Seattle IFF and Flickerfest. She is currently developing a live-action short.
