- Country: USA
- Genres: Short
- Release:
- Director: Anne Madden
- Writers: Ben Loory , Anne Madden
- Language: N/A
- Stars: Michael Paul Chan , Kieu Chinh , Jane Chung , Claudia Francis , Don Ho , Jonathan Mo , Jack Ong , Frank Seto , Marian Lee Stryker , Tyler Lee Stryker
- Runtime: 30 min
- Awards: 3 wins & 1 nomination
- AKA: First Daughter (United States of America) , First Daughter
- Plot: I'm not entirely sure that I thinking about the right movie here, but I saw a short film entitled "First Daughter" at the Heartland Film Festival last year. There can't be too many of them around.What I saw was a very thoughtful, engaging story. It was definitely the best short film at Heartland that year. It was the story of a young Vietnamese girl, and how she copes with the death of her father and grandmother. Although the film was made on a very small budget, it has a great deal of fantasy, including one scene where paper puppets seem to come to life. The movie's plot involves the grandmother explaining the Vietnamese legends and custom's involving death to the young girl, who is still trying to cope with her father's death. (She does this by obsessing about the heart, for her father died of a heart attack. The film opens while she reads her brother's pulse and records it, making sure that he is OK).The film is very intuitive about how a child deals with death. It may not be easier as an adult to deal with the death of a loved one, but children cannot yet fully understand how to deal with it. This film demonstrates that beautifully.Rating: ***1/2 out of four
- IMDB:tt0176722
First Daughter Cast
Anne Madden
Director
Michael Paul Chan
Uncle Lum
Kieu Chinh
Grandma
Jane Chung
Great Aunt Jo
Claudia Francis
Amy
Don Ho
Monk #1
Jonathan Mo
Tu Uyen
Jack Ong
Grandpa
Frank Seto
Head Monk
Marian Lee Stryker
Aunt #2
Tyler Lee Stryker
Tyler