The idea I am pitching for my 10-15 min short documentary is a narrative on my father’s life as a Syrian American immigrant living in New York City. My father immigrated to the States when he was a teenager, about 18 years old. I feel like I have a lot of themes to work with when it comes to retelling his story by capturing his past and his present. I enjoyed my classmate’s reactions when they saw my ten-shot sequence video on him. One student mentioned that they wanted to keep watching and see where he was going. I also think my father is the best candidate to be my central character because of my access to him, especially since I am limited in travel and people willing to work on a project this long.
The plan I have for what I intend to shoot and the kinds of scenes/imagery I want to come back with are ones that take the audience along with him as he goes on about his life, especially going to work and capturing the essence of his hustle. Images that convey the stress and pressure he feels to pay the bills and keep his family of five afloat. I want to shoot details that bring a sense of intimacy between him and the audience, and I want to attempt to form a relationship that will allow them to keep watching.
Ideas I have for a narrative arc that the story might take is trying to get into my father’s mind to understand his infamous anger issues. I want to understand why he reacts in the way he does. I hope to do this by capturing raw and candid moments of his temper, a result of the stressors of his daily life. Another arc I would like to take is exploring his family life since he recently remarried after a decade of divorce and now has two sons alongside my sister and me.
I think I will be okay with the timeframe I have since I live with my father and could accompany him wherever he goes if it fits the narrative I am telling. What is likely to happen within the window I have is progress with his work, family, days, and general life. I also think that if I incorporate scenes talking about and exploring his past along with his present then I will have enough content to fill a10-15 minute doc. I believe I can meet this goal if I rely on interviews, lingering details, and archival footage.