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Directed by Albert M Chan and Anthony Grasso
Starring Albert M Chan, Mary Niederkorn and Andrew Chan Possemato
Short Film Review by Rachel Pullen
Have you ever watched those videos on YouTube where people tell stories about their life or just talk about how important they think their opinions are, yeah you know the ones. I have always found them rather boring; why would you just want to watch someone staring at the camera chatting away; well of course it’s not about the image on the screen, it’s about the content, about the story, that’s what’s keeping you interested.
Short film Welcome to the World is just that, it’s one man and his camera, telling his tale to an audience that is just one person in particular...his sister who is in labour.
We start by thinking maybe he is making a video for his sister’s future child, something to watch when he or she is older to get an idea of what life was like on the day of their birth, but that’s not the case at all, this is his video version of a suicide note.
Leading man Albert M. Chan, who also wrote, directed and produced this short [what a busy bee he is!], plays an emotionally raw man with a grace and ease that is often only seen within some of the most high end actors, it’s very easy to become 100% invested in the believability of his pain and his torment as he bares his soul for us all to see.
Not for one moment do we lose interest in his tale, Chan gives us just enough information about his life story to keep us compelled but does not go into detail that may make the audience lose interest, a tactic that some of these ‘’YouTubers’’ could take note of, the story does not come from layers and layer of details and back story, it’s delivered hard and fast and still has the desired emotional impact.
Choice of costume and environment are not overlooked either within this short, Chan uses the colour theme of grey to create a believable bleak environment, we get a real sense of the isolation the leading man has been victim of, his loneliness is scattered around the room, allowing the viewer an insight into his lifestyle.
This short film packs a huge punch, I’m not one to be easily moved by film or TV but I certainly could of shed a tear or two during Welcome to the World if I wasn’t such an emotionally void robot, and to create such an impact on a viewer in only seven minutes with just one man, a script and a camera certainly speaks volumes of the skills that Chan has as a director, writer and performer, Chan is the definition of a triple threat.
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