GRIEF

“Graceful and full of passion, speaking far louder than words could.”

It is a story of a male dancer who loses his lover and creates an inner world reflecting on his grief and memories about her and their dances.

Experimental films like this have a way at connecting with an audience in a way other films can’t. It cuts straight to the emotion and leaves a deep resonance that’s hard to forget. Directors Siyuan Gao & Michael De arco short film Grief is a powerful and poetic watch, that may challenge some viewers with it’s themes. But this is why films such as these are so important, it allows us to grasp emotions we’ve never experienced and put it into perspective.

The story itself is compelling enough, but doing it without ever really speaking a single word is most impressive. The use of dance as a way of evoking emotion is a beautiful way at telling the story. The soft and precise movement of the choreography is graceful and full of passion, speaking far louder than words could.

The camera work from Director of Photography Adam Saturday compliments the movements of the cast perfectly and captures every detail. We move between slow and steady for the dramatic scenes into a flourish of dancing from the camera itself. The mix between colour and black and white is a nice artistic touch and again helps with distinguishing between moments in time within the film.

The films cast Aaron Campbell and Ashton Sly have wonderful chemistry and play off each other seamlessly. There is a natural closeness between them and is further explored with the dramatic choreography. It’s touching to see such a connection between characters that don’t share any dialogue with each other and is not something that’s easily achieved.

As for the films score, it perfectly captures the hard hitting and raw emotion expressed by the cast. The classical elements of the score are truly beautiful and was a perfect choice for the film.

We thoroughly encourage readers to watch this fantastic film if they have the opportunity ad it will certainly leave a lasting impact…

— APEX Film Awards