Synopsis
At the family reunion on the winter solstice, the grandma and mother knead dough to make Tuanzi (Dango, rice dumplings), while the grandpa and father fold gold foil paper into ingots. The son wanders among the adults, worried about a secret he has discovered. On the surface, the day seems fine, with everyone maintaining their usual expressions, yet something hidden simmers and grows within their chit-chat.
This is a process-genre film. “Juci” is a Chinese restoration technique that fixes porcelain by nailing broken shards together. Like the vase in the film, the family is both broken and complete, separated and integral.
BAGGIO JIANG
Baggio Jiang is an aspiring director and screenwriter currently studying Film and Psychology at Stanford University. With a tender yet profound perspective, his works focus on minorities and their social struggles. His previous projects, A STEP and WHERE I BELONG, received over 5 million views worldwide.
His narrative shorts AMITA, 502, and LIVE have been selected for over 20 film festivals, including SFFILM and KFF. His experimental feature, SHARDS, has recently completed post-production.
Director's statement
The Lunar New Year’s Eve of 2022, the day my first time going back to China and having dinner with my family in five years turned into a big fight for no reason. I drove my grandparents back to their own house, and on the way out, I had a heart attack. Lying on the ground, I started realizing why the fight happened: the quarantine tore the family apart, not in a direct sense, but through its effects on all aspects of our lives. We tried our best to piece each other together, but the effort was futile.
Thus, SHARDS was born. I want to capture this subjective memory of my own. Although the film is very slow, static, and almost plotless, the conflicts are hidden everywhere. Like the title, they are broken into pieces and scattered throughout the process, waiting to be pieced together.
