SXSW Review:
"An Elephant in the Room"
Release Date: N/A
Rating: N/A Running Time: 88 minutes “Sometimes we don’t feel comfortable talking about memories that make us cry or make us sad,” says a grieving young child in director Katrine Philp’s empathetic documentary An Elephant in the Room. Philp’s inside look at the difficult work being done at Good Grief in Morristown, N.J—which won this year’s SXSW Documentary Feature Competition—is a simply told but nevertheless heartbreaking study in the importance of grief expression among young children ages 3-17 who have lost a parent, a sibling, or another cherished family member. Philp wisely focuses on boys and girls whose ages range from five to 10 years old. Most of her subjects join Good Grief’s group therapy sessions struggling to express and/or fully articulate their feelings of sadness, anger, and frustration. At Good Grief, Philp is an unobtrusive presence as she captures the children at play or interacting with each other as they learn as individuals and as a group to let out their emotions and explain how they are dealing with their loss. During one group therapy session, a newcomer to Good Grief breaks down crying over the death of his father. “I just wish I could spend more time with him,” he says as everyone looks at him in concern and knowing exactly how he feels. What follows is a tender moment that speaks heartily to the community that Good Grief fosters among its young participants. Philp does venture outside of Good Grief to not only show how these children are coping at home but to talk with them about how their loved one(s) died but to share memories. To Philp’s credit, she is not interested in providing additional background on a parent’s death. One example, one child leaves us with the impression that his father may have died from a drug overdose (he also notes his mother died in a car accident). For Philp, it is the child’s viewpoint and lasting memories that are all paramount importance as opposed to the fine details of a person’s death. Of course, each child grieves in their own way and at their own pace. As An Elephant in the Room progresses, it is evident some children are further along in the grief process than others. “Sometimes we don’t feel comfortable talking about memories that make us cry or make us sad,” says one boy. While An Elephant in the Room ends on a hopeful moment, Philp never lulls us into falsely thinking a child’s emotional pain can be erased without trace before they reach adulthood. But without help from a close and dedicated support system, especially operating under the guidance of grief counselors, this pain can be managed to the point a child can move forward with their young life. Robert Sims Posted: April 7, 2020 Web site: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2020/films/2023305 |
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