Often when writing these articles for Short of the Week I like to tap into what’s relatable about a film and add a personal angle to a post, but with some films that just isn’t possible. For Danski Tang’s animated doc Umbilical, as this is a very personal story it’s more about being presented with a new perspective and expanding your own point-of-view. It’s also a film so powerful, it speaks for itself.

“I want to use my existing position to bring these struggles to light”

Despite feeling quite introspective, Tang had broader reasons for creating Umbilical, as she explained when we discussed her film for Short of the Week. “I hope to present voices that typically go unheard, through a medium that is still relatively unexplored. I was raised in an abusive environment, often feeling alone and silenced. As a result, I am driven by those who have their freedom restricted by societies, and even families. I want to use my existing position to bring these struggles to light.”

A haunting real-life story, told via some equally haunting (but also beautiful) imagery, Umbilical is based around an interview Tang conducted with her mother about the violence she endured at the hands of her husband. Sometimes the accompanying visuals feel like quite a literal representation of the voiceover – when Tang talks about going to boarding school we see a table of children turn and look to the camera or when she talks about struggling to find her voice, we see a child in portrait view remove a section of her head, which contains her mouth – but the majority of the time the visuals are more abstract, and often unsettling.

The creation of the film was obviously somewhat of a cathartic experience for Tang, who describes it as “an opportunity for myself to review and heal from my own past”, but as a viewer we’re encouraged to reflect on the circumstances detailed in the narrative and form our own conclusions. Umbilical isn’t an easy watch, the interview contains many elements that are obviously still very raw and difficult to hear, while the aesthetic is often disorientating and unnerving. The score from Sean Hayward expanding on the film’s visceral tone, without ever being overpowering or attention-grabbing.

Employing hand-drawn animation, rotoscoping, and water colours to capture the different emotions in her narrative, Umbilical is notable for its uncompromising approach to its subject and style. It’s a film that stands out for being more than just an eye-catching experimental piece as emotionally it really impacts as well. We weren’t the only ones impressed with it, as the short won awards at Locarno, AFI Fest, Ann Arbor, Slamdance and more. With her latest short centred around a lesbian Muslim living in Indonesia and how she faces mounting pressure to marry, here at S/W we’re blown away with Tang’s filmmaking and are eager to see more of her work, as Umbilical is a prime example of what a filmmaker can achieve in such a short time.