Fishbowl
Suburban Stories
•
Drama, Short Films, 10-Dec-2021
On a visit to her family in America, a grandmother is left to find companionship with a pet fish as she slowly comes to terms with losing her independence. Annie Ning directs “Fishbowl,” a tender and observant portrait of aging and isolation, shouldered by a poignant performance from Xiangrun Jiang. Visiting from China, Grandma Gao tries to get comfortable in her new suburban American surroundings with her daughter and grandchildren, but the culture and lifestyle is unfamiliar to her. While she spends her days alone in a big empty house with only a goldfish to keep her company, she worries that her agency is being taken away, especially after a revealing phone call home. Within its modest, nuanced storytelling mode, Ning’s film perfectly captures lives in progress, difficult decisions being made, life transitions, generational divides, culture shock, etc, all of which quietly accumulate into a bowl of emotion. -KA. Directed by Annie Ning. Starring Xiangrun Jiang, Xingrong Chen, Allen Chen, Alexandria Chu, Benjamin Tedcastle. Director of Photography: Leon Ristov. Produced by Ruby Fludzinski, Sherwin Yu, Kat Cucullo, Hannah Cooper. Production Designer: Council Brandon. Art Director: Joseph Issac Cohen. Score by Sarina Hahn.
Up Next in Suburban Stories
-
Gas Money
While making a documentary about the female orgasm, a filmmaker tries to get her conservative parents to see her side of her own sexual explorations. Allison Bunce directs “Gas Money,” a provocatively funny dissection of repressive sexual standards and the resulting shame and emotional wreckage. ...
-
Lady of the House
A once promising opera singer finds herself years later as a stay-at-home mom with two young boys. She’s overwhelmed and overworked and there’s a distant look in her eyes. Life (or one day) rolls on, hurtling down the track faster than she can keep up. Her kids are perpetually crying or demanding...
-
Nomad
We’ve been following the Chicago filmmaker Bradley Bischoff for several years. His previous film, "Where the Buffalo Roam" (2013) was a subtly touching story of two brothers on their last night together in the suburbs. In "Nomad," the lead character is a little older, a little more established, b...
