By Jennifer Kroot–
Will Zang has an impossible choice to make in his new film The Leaf, a first-person, poetic, short documentary with a vulnerable tone that may bring you to tears. The Leaf is streaming at this year’s Frameline Film Festival.
While The Leaf is only four minutes long, it movingly captures the anxiety and hopelessness of 2020 that everyone will recognize.
In the film, Will confronts a profound and unwinnable conflict concerning his identity as an Asian immigrant and as a gay man during the Covid shutdown.
Much of the audio in The Leaf is from worried voicemail messages that Will received from his Chinese friends and family, who suggest that Will might be safer in China. This is not only because, at the time, the virus was spiraling out of control in the U.S., but also because anti-Asian violence and racism were increasing. Will understandably considers returning to China, especially since he’s also unable to find work during the pandemic.
But going back to China poses its own threats. Will is a gay man, and therefore can’t be himself back home. As a result, he’s trapped between two countries and cultures, and unable to feel at home, anywhere. According to Will, while it’s technically legal to be queer in China, there’s immense pressure to conform to what’s “normal”, which means being heterosexual and married, at his age, in a nuclear family. In addition, in China, it’s still common for openly LGBTQ people to be fired from jobs.
While The Leaf is an audio driven film, the visuals are equally striking. Will films life around him as the world shuts down, which looks just as claustrophobic and stark as you will remember. Shots of his quiet life at home doing simple, ordinary things are woven with shots of San Francisco neighborhoods, bizarrely empty, seemingly dead. The film captures the eerie descent of the pandemic when businesses were first shutting down and boarded up, prior to the parklets. The result is a desolate and sad San Francisco.
Whether or not Will can overcome this situation is to be seen, but he’s made a winning and profound film that is resonating. In addition to Frameline, The Leaf screened at CAAMFest here in SF, and upcoming screenings include Portland Pride Pics, the Korea Queer Film Festival, and Out Film CT Festival.
The Leaf is Will’s second film to screen at Frameline. In 2019, his short documentary Dress Up Like Mrs. Doubtfire was featured in the festival and was about the influence of the 1993 Hollywood feature film Mrs. Doubtfire on local drag queens including Peaches Christ and Donna Sachet, who is also a San Francisco Bay Times columnist.
I met Will in 2014 when I was teaching Documentary Filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute. He was a student of mine and we’ve stayed in touch and become friends. As someone who saw an early edit of The Leaf, I’m credited as “consulting producer.” However, the truth is that, when I first saw The Leaf, it was already a stunningly, thought-provoking film that broke my heart.
I’m not sure of Will’s long-term plans, but I’m glad that he’s staying in America for now.
The Leaf streams in Frameline’s “Up Close and Personal” program of short films, June 17–June 27:
Note: Frameline suggests watching this program on Sunday, June 20, at 9 pm.
Jennifer Kroot is a filmmaker, known for her award-winning LGBTQ themed documentaries, including “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin” and “To Be Takei.” She studied filmmaking at the San Francisco Art Institute, where she has also taught. She is a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Published on June 10, 2021
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