So Long/The Womb, My Home is a 12-minute short that explores the loss of a loved one, past memories, and home. As the inevitability of loss, change, and separation is a part of universal human experience, we hope to offer sensibility and sensitivity through our story to those who are also navigating

About The Project 

The Story 

So Long/The Womb, My Home follows Adeline, a Chinese-American woman’s visit to her mother’s house only to realize that mother passed away a long time ago, and she has been living in her memories. Soon after, the arrival of her husband Nathan reminds her that mother’s house is soon to be sold. 

Home  
This film is dedicated to my family and is inspired by my own emotional journey making sense of memory and loss during the pandemic. As an international student away from home for almost 9 years, my attachment and longing for home only grew stronger during the lockdowns. As I hold onto the memories of home from the past, I found myself saddened by how much things have changed over time. However, I quickly realized that reconciling with the past, home, and memory doesn’t have to be suffering. 

I hope to use this film to bring some universal truth in experiencing the loss of a loved one – reminding myself and others to appreciate what we have had and and acknowledge the cyclical nature of life: although there is death, separation, and grief in life, there’s always life, reunion, and joy as well.  

 

Womb 
When I first heard the film editor Walter Murch discussing the significance of sound in the womb at the Surrounded by Soundscapes panel, I was struck by how significant sound is for a child in a womb. Fetuses first develop their hearing 4.5 months after conception, before developing sight. Therefore, human’s very first understanding of the self and the world around us is through sound, particularly, the sounds of mother’s voice, heartbeat, breathing, intestine movement, and blood circulation. All these sounds provide comfort and security to the child 24 hours a day until it is born, where the child is, all of the sudden, thrown into a new sonic abyss–silence. To a newborn, silence is daunting and threatening as it entails that signs and pulses of the life of mother, as well as the protection that comes with it, stop to exist. Now it’s up to themselves to navigate the world. 

I find this concept relatable to my understanding of home, where home creates a specific soundscape to provide comfort for people living inside. It could be the ambience of parents cooking, TV playing, a fan running, or piano playing, and all of these sounds become a symphony that is unique to the family. However, like a fetus leaving its mother's womb, people also have to leave the sounds of a home behind and explore the emptiness and silence in a world outside. Much inspired by such similarity, I decided to incorporate the visual and auditory concepts of a womb as a motif to narrate this story about home. 

(Link to Surrounded by Soundscapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kXunfOQ_A0)

 

 

Film Set 

Our film was shot in 5 days at 3 locations with months of preparation and post-production process. Our principle shooting was at the Mother’s house: we created the space almost from scratch where we redesigned the walls with new furniture and decor. The house is a metaphor for the womb that provides comfort for our main character Adeline but we also changed the set 3 times to highlight the contrast between past memory, empty space after mother’s passing and newcomers moving into the house. 

Here are some Behind The Scene Photos of our set and the amazing, talented crew! 

Group Photo from Week 1 of Shooting 

 

Group Photo from Week 2 of Shooting

 

Behind the Scene of the Opening Scene

 

Our Key Grip (Zoe), PA (Xiran), and Sound Recordist (Ava)

 

Crew Members and Cast (Josephine, Alika, and Eleni) Preparing for the Kitchen Scene

 

Crew Members and Adeline at the Exterior Scene

 

 

Why We Need Your Help 

To ensure the pay for our talented actors, catering service for our dedicated crew members and a successful post-production, we are asking for your assistance to help us finish the production strong. Though our producers have successfully limited our budget under $3k, as we are still college students, we have limited resources to finance our production. We have invested almost a year, both emotionally and financially, in preparing this film and your help is going to help us bring this story to screen! 

Follow Us 

Instagram: @so_long_film

Contact 

Phone Number: 860-834-4307

Email: [email protected]