All About My Son

The debut short of filmmaker Gin Huang, All About My Son is a poignant exploration of identity, grief, and the complexities of love across cultural and generational divides. Set against the backdrop of the emotional aftermath of a gay nightclub shooting, the story unfolds as a British gay man and a conservative Taiwanese mother meet to discuss his involvement in her son’s life and the finer details of her son’s death. Their conversation is interwoven with poignant comments on marriage, monogamy, and infidelity, and the varying definitions of it. The film delves into the internal struggles faced by LGBTQ+ individuals and the societal norms that shape their lives. All About My Son is a testament to the power of independent filmmaking, offering a deeply personal and evocative narrative that challenges conventional storytelling.

• Gin Huang - Writer/Director
• Umnia El-Neil - Producer, Colorist, Sound
• Rob Hughes - "Liam"
• Chizuko Baynard-Smith - "Mother"
• Anna Shakour - Co-Producer
• DOP - Aleesha Rane
• Editor - Pei-Chin Chien
• Assistant Director - Aarohi Kulkarni
• Gaffer - Josh Downing
• Music by Ian Chen
• Executive Producers - Sarah El-Neil, Umnia El-Neil, Gin Huang, Li-Chen Huang, Fabian Schipper

• Project Type: Short
• Genres: Drama, Marriage, LGBTQ+, Grief
• Runtime: 9 minutes 21 seconds
• Completion Date: May 28, 2024
• Production Budget: 700 GBP
• Country of Origin: Taiwan
• Country of Filming: United Kingdom
• Language: English
• Shooting Format: Digital
• Aspect Ratio: 16:9
• Film Color: Black & White and Color
• First-time Filmmaker: Yes
• Student Project: No

Biography

Taiwanese Economist-turned-Writer/Director Gin Huang has been writing analytical reports for The Economist Group since 2013, dividing his time between Taipei, New York City, Frankfurt and London. His urban ethnography, New Yorkology, was published by China Times Publishing in Taiwan in 2015 and earned critical acclaim. The book includes well-received real-life and fictional stories that encourage him to transitions to screenplay writing and, after study at Raindance Film School, filmmaking. With a college major of journalism, he earned a national prize for a 2-minute news clip in Taiwan.

His time in London in 2016 inspired the events of his debut feature, 'All About My Son', the first episode of his planned trilogy of globalization that deals with the movement of people, goods and capitals across borders, respectively. This vital issue, dominating domestic and international politics nowadays, was part of his thesis for his pursuit of a PhD in Economics before he left academia. The Proof-of-Concept Short of the same name stars Rob Hughes and Chizuko Baynard-Smith in a restrained but expressive story of grief, contradiction, regret and cross-cultural understanding.

Director's Statement

All About My Son is inspired by real-life events - as a gay man closeted to his family, I was shocked by the Orlando nightclub shooting in June 2016. I, a gay bar attendee, kept wondering how my conservative parents would cope with such a tragedy if they eventually learned my sexual orientation through my death at a gay venue. Making this film is the most graceful approach for me to come out to them.

What also happened in summer 2016, that both struck and inspired me, was my ménage à trois with a married gay couple. Our relationship that involved both joy and deceit made me question the very meaning of marriage. All About My Son hence attempts to open discussions on a practice so ingrained in human society, but its' nature is rarely examined.

All About My Son is also a proof of concept - a scene chosen from our feature, for not only the feature’s storylines convergence to this point, but also as a stand-alone short film aiming to “normalize” homosexuality, shifting today's queer films’ focus on external discrimination against the gay community to internal challenges facing many gay couples, not least from the perspective of monogamy and infidelity.

Given its inspirations, All About My Son is a dedication to the victims of attacks on a specific group of people for their ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, a kind of violence that still prevails in 2024. We believe that films have the power to heal wounds and hope that our film can bring some comforts to the victim’s friends and families.

All About My Son is also a homage to Pedro Almodóvar, a director beloved by this team. Although our story is not derived from the Spanish masterpiece, All About My Mother, we adjusted the title to pay our tribute to the director whose films on queer and parent-child relationships deeply influence us.

OBSCURAE, founded by Umnia El-Neil, is an award-winning indie production company dedicated to creating bold, innovative films that challenge conventional narratives and spark meaningful dialogues. In 2024, their film DOPAMINE earned critical acclaim, winning Best Film by Popular Vote at Brighton Rocks International Film Festival and Best Short Film at Saturn Returns. El-Neil, a filmmaker and multimedia artist with over 13 years of experience, is known for her sharp political wit and character-driven stories that subvert expectations and provoke thought. Her work reflects a deep commitment to exploring the complexities of the world we live in while imagining the one we aspire to create. Since 2023, she has served as a script editor for independent features and as a script reader for the Austin Film Festival, further solidifying her role as a dynamic voice in contemporary cinema.