Fatherhood: The Ultimate Trust Fall
Watch Ice Merchants this Father's Day Weekend
The emotional relationships between fathers and sons can be as scary as cliff diving with no parachute. Even the steadiest and most secure fathers can find themselves falling through their own uncharted traumas and fears, trying to be there for their children with untested parachutes.
This makes fatherhood the ultimate trust fall.
We live in our routines without speaking about what ails and anchors us, no matter how brittle or fragile those anchors might be.
Enter Ice Merchants, an animated short film from Joao Gonzalez.
I discovered Ice Merchants a few months ago. I had to watch and reflect on the film as a writing assignment for a creative nonfiction course, Memoir: In Film and Spoken Word, taught by
. The film stuck with me.The tone and music make the 14-minute silent, animated film feel darkly ethereal. It was scary for August to watch at first, but by the end of it he loved it too. Then, we watched it several more times together. It was so intriguing to witness a 6-year old process the emotions of the silent journey of the father and the son.
The film conjured honest questions in August that were different from my own, but our feelings were congruent.
Watch this film this Father’s Day weekend. Be stirred. Let yourself fall in love with your son(s) all over again.
I promise, you will stick the landing.
Read my previous writings (see list below) on parenthood here:
Happy Father’s Day!
Honestly,
Ed.