Matthew Chang

Canvassing begins as the protagonists Ben and James paint a beautiful portrait of an expensive mansion. When they finish, they sell the painting to the owner and trek to find another house to paint. As they are painting the next house, the neighborhood rascals play a prank on them, spraying them with silly string. Still, they finish the painting and begin their long journey home. At home, Ben paints a portrait of his brother then they brush their teeth and go to sleep, with only each other by their sides.

As many other children of immigrants, I have often felt a disconnect between the culture and heritage of my family and that of the rest of my interactions in the United States. I wanted to explore this idea in a higher stakes form with my film. In it, the narrator is stuck between a few worlds, represented by a father in China, an immigrant mother, and his independent work in school, and he must attempt to balance the three. As such, I hope it can resonate with those who have had a similar cultural experience in this country.

As a child of immigrants, there are so many aspects of life that would be impossible to see eye-to-eye with my parents on. They were born in Cambodia while I was raised in the United States, with a completely different way of life. Thus, growing up there were numerous instances of helpless love, where we couldn't truly understand each other and couldn't truly understand what was best for one another. I wanted to capture this idea of helpless love in Gravity, where the father only wants the best for his daughter but can't seem to know if it's working.