75min | USA | 2023 Set at the dawn of Covid, Family Portrait follows a sprawling family on a morning when they have planned a group picture. After the mother disappears and one of the daughters becomes increasingly anxious to find her and take the picture, the rest of the family appears to resist any attempt to gather. Initially presenting itself as a realistic portrayal of a family on an idle but hectic summer day, the film progressively descends into a realm where time and space lose their grip, transforming the family portrait into a solemn and enigmatic ritual of transition.
Directors' Statement I have long been captivated by my mother’s unwavering fascination with family Christmas cards, which, to her, symbolize the absence of conflict that precedes each year’s card. Every autumn, she conceptualizes, orchestrates, and brings to life a unique card, often centered around a theme, pun, or clever wordplay. These cards are sent out to hundreds of individuals in her social network, and in return, her home is inundated with cards from other families. Each card serves as a representation of the family institution—a frozen moment in time, striving to establish and preserve the family tree. Growing up in the “old money” American South, my experience involved navigating pain privately and primarily focusing on cultivating a successful and prosperous image. Topics like despair, loss, and death were treated as taboo, relegated to secrecy. In the film “Family Portrait,” the family encounters the raw and unsettling reality of their relative’s death, presumably caused by a mysterious virus. The brevity with which they acknowledge their fleeting sorrow, followed by Katy’s insistence on proceeding with the picture, becomes increasingly unsettling. According to Freudian psychoanalysis, mourning is a necessary process for processing loss. It occurs when the grieving individual is able to incorporate the departed into their psyche, eventually adapting to their new reality. However, in melancholia, the lost individual is assimilated into the psyche but remains unacknowledged. Consequently, the griever subconsciously directs aggression towards the lost other. When loss and grief are denied, mourning transforms into melancholia. In “Family Portrait,” the family denies the collective mourning experience, and thus, melancholia begins to undermine the film’s supposed “reality,” ultimately leading to a divergence into an alternative psychic realm. Roland Barthes posited that family portraits are an anxious attempt to freeze time and immortalize the family. However, unbeknownst to the family, as they don smiles and pose for the picture, they have already departed from the realm of the living.
