First Anniversary (directed by James Huang and written by Chin Yu) is a heartbreaking short film that makes great use of Ernest Hemmingway's iceberg theory; that is, that what appears is only a small tip of what's happening. This adds impact to the story, giving the audience a greater role in the nuances of the story, and allowing deeper meanings to shine through implicitly.
In First Anniversary, we see Kate (played by Kate T. Billingsley) and Owen (played by Keith Chandler) reluctant to meet each other. They never say they are divorced; instead, we know they know each other because they instantly recognize each other, and we find out they are divorced because of their hesitancy towards each other and, ultimately, because they ask each other when they stopped wearing their respective wedding rings.
Kate and Owen are meeting for a reason that's also never stated explicitly, and I will try not to divulge too much here. Let's just say that something awful happened and it was nobody's fault, yet the two feel obliged to meet and visit a place together.
There are more conversations. There's talk of missing each other and of love. The wedding rings come up again. These two obviously have unresolved issues, as well as a lot of love towards each other. They agree to meet again in exactly a year. Maybe they can be together; maybe they can't. That's not the point, really. The point is, the audience gets to be entirely emotionally invested for 10 minutes of beautiful film. Thank goodness for all that is left unsaid in First Anniversary.
