The South by South West (SXSW) Film Festival celebrates raw innovation and emerging talent from both behind and in front of the camera in the U.S. Featuring provocative dramas, documentaries, comedies, genre standouts and more, the festival has become known for the high caliber and diversity of films presented, and for its smart, enthusiastic audiences. In this issue, we look at some award-winning features and documentaries recommended by film critics.

Director: Katrine Philp

THE winner of this year’s documentary feature award at the virtual version of SXSW, Katrine Philp’s “An Elephant in the Room” spends time with participants in a New Jersey program called Good Grief, whose probably inadvertent invocation of Charlie Brown hints at its focus: The Morristown group is built around children who have lost parents, placing them in group therapy sessions and in more school-like settings where their struggles will be understood by peers.

An observational documentary that interviews some children but not those designing their environment, the film exudes empathy, as you’d expect, but struggles to find a compelling point of view. Despite the sympathy viewers will naturally feel for the young subjects and those caring for them, “Elephant” has little to teach us about the grieving process and how children may experience it differently from adults.

It starts arrestingly, with a young boy speaking to the camera and trying to describe how his father’s death felt. It was like a really bad stubbed toe, he says — an extreme understatement that poignantly shows how difficult it can be to describe emotional pain.

Soon we’re at Good Grief, watching something akin to group therapy sessions. A “talking stick” is passed from child to child as introductions are made. From there, we observe what often look like normal preschool or elementary school activities. There are craft projects, sometimes geared toward visual expressions of how kids’ families have changed; there’s a padded room, appropriate both for general horsing around and as refuge for a kid who needs a quick break from those around him.

One of the film’s achievements comes near the conclusion, when one of the children begins to cry heavily during one of the more therapy-like group sessions. Showing just how empathetic children can be, another asks this young boy if he’d like to go outside and talk about the feelings he’s having.

Just one example of the type of insight the film gives with regards to a child’s experience with grief, it may even more so be a perfect example of this film’s uncanny ability to portray these children as both mature beyond their years and yet utterly innocent and unknowing of the world they live in.

Despite the film’s modest means (the photography itself is surely beautiful but, again, the filmmaking is strangely flat), Philp proves to be an expert at tone and mood, crafting a film that never once feels manipulative despite the lack of adult presence within the narrative. The film allows each subject to inform the viewer about their story in whatever way they see fit, and in doing so we learn not just about each story, but just how the grief and grieving is processed by the youngest of our society.

(SD-Agencies)