SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2024 REVIEW! Hurtful words and actions from family members can scar some people for a lifetime. What makes it even tougher is that we still love our family regardless of the agony that they put us through. Director Agustina Aranda tells the painful story of her relationship with her father, Panfilo, in the documentary short Say Something.
Panfilo Aranda is a Paraguayan immigrant who is one of the first people from his country to record digital videos. This is one of the few things that both the father and daughter can take pride in, besides the love they share that is so clear to see in her childhood footage. The audience gets to see some of his home video footage over a span of forty years, where we see familiar things such as Panfilo playing with his kids and trying to show off for the camera on vacations.
“…painful story of her relationship with her father…”
The documentary is only ten minutes long, but it has a strong narrative about the father/daughter relationship that is shown between the archive footage, present-day footage of the two sitting and talking about things at a table, and sketch drawing black and white animation.
The heart of the issue comes from when Agustina became a teenager and started to dress differently in a punk/skater style. She would shave her head and dye her hair in all kinds of funky colors and Dennis Rodman-type patterns. Panfilo called his daughter “ugly,” and that understandably had a huge effect on her. He says that he just doesn’t like that style, but it made her feel like she wasn’t his daughter anymore.
The emotions in Say Something are raw and relatable because we’ve all had issues with family. It’s not easy to put something so personal out there on film, so kudos are in order for Agustina. It’s also quite difficult to get to such a powerful emotion in such a short time frame, but she does so in style with the different types of footage. Young filmmaker Agustina Aranda has a bright future in the medium as long as she can continue on this same path while hopefully expanding on it over the years.
Say Something screened at the 2024 Slamdance Film Festival.
"…...raw and relatable..."
