Langue
HONDURAS; USA | 2022 | 19min | Short | Documentary
Director: Charles Xiuzhi Dong
Producer: Charles Xiuzhi Dong; Suki Li
Cinematographer: Charles Xiuzhi Dong
Editor: Bowei Yue
Composer: Alex Symcox
Sound Designer: San Fan
导演:董秀智
制片:董秀智、李舒琪
摄影指导:董秀智
剪辑:岳博维
声音设计:San Fan
About the film
The film takes a poignant look at the daily lives of two families in Langue, a small town in Honduras. With vivid portraits of the rural landscape, dirt roads, mud houses, deforestation, and drought, the film captures the duality of how societal issues construct and affect children — an inescapable circumstance that brings the weight of survival to children as a foil to harmony and warmness. A subtle sense of hope shining through the eyes of children delivers the essence of resilience in human nature. The film’s rough and grainy texture communicates harshness, while its use of natural sound in the community adds a lively filter to the inevitabilities of life in Langue.
Festival&Award
Palm Springs International ShortFest 2022
Official Selection
2022 HiShorts Short Film Festival
Documentary Competition
Director's Note
I was invited to part of a volunteer program in Langue, Honduras. While taking this opportunity, I was able to be completely immersive in this community, observing what their lives really were under the influence of drug-related crimes, poverty, and deforestation. During my shoot, nothing was planed, and everything I got was a result by chance and luck. Thinking back from now, I was unintentionally led by a sense of hope and warmness through the eyes of children. I want to deliver an authentic sense of their lives, respecting the sequences of events in their real lives and using only sound from the community recorded during filming.
Charles DONG
Charles Xiuzhi Dong is an award-winning director, based in Los Angeles. graduated from the NYU, Tisch School of the Arts. He accpeted a directing fellowship from the American Film Institute in 2020. His short films screened at numerous film festivals. Namely, After Class (2020): Santa Barbara, Oberhausen, and Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia: winning Best Short Award. Anshan Diaries (2021) was a finalist for the Student Academy Awards and the Golden Horse Awards which premiered at the 65th San Fransisco International Film Festival. His latest film Langue premiered at the Palm Springs International Shortfest and was a Semi-finalist for the Student Academy Awards.