Minerva Navasca is an award winning Toronto-based Filipino director and producer, and a ‘23 graduate of the Bachelors of Film and Television program at Sheridan College. She is best known for her short documentaries “Guardians” (2021), and “Kamayan” (2021), which has been showcased in local and international festivals such as the 2022 TIFF Next Wave, NFFTY 2023, and the 2023 Yorkton Film Fest. Her latest short, “Desync” won the Best Writing award at the TIFF Next Wave 2024 and Outstanding Short Film Producer at the Reelworld Film Festival 2023, among a number of other awards.
Desync review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
The film begins in kitchen, where a daughter and her mother are preparing a meal, with most of the scene unfolding in slow motion. The first cut brings us to another setting, where Ana, a young Filipina filmmaker, shoots a re-enactment of a fight she once had with her mother. She has a discussion with her actresses, who have some notes about the lines, which Ana smooths over by explaining her logic. The next cut finds us again in the initial scene, which actually derived from a real incident in Ana's life, with her being present in the scene.
The rest of the film unfolds in the same fashion, with Ana changing the actual lines for the real event, by rewriting every veiled insult into a chance for forgiveness. The fighting unfolds in both settings, although in quite different terms. As Ana is shooting the movie, she realizes that her mother's complains in the real incident had a different background and that she was actually trying to say something completely different all along.
Minerva Navasca directs a film that unfolds on a number of levels, all of which seem to present different comments. The first level, of the actual scene taking place in the past, highlights the generational gap children and their parents frequently experience. At the same time, it shows how the lack of communication can intensify the issue, to the point that it becomes a trauma.
The shooting scene showcases how cinema can provide solutions in the aforementioned issue (any issue essentially), by highlighting and analyzing it. As we watch Ana realizing more and more what her mother was actually about the more she works in the scene, the point comes forward even more eloquently. Furthermore, the slight conflict she has with the actress who plays the mother, Joyce and the fact that she has actually changed through the process, also comes to the fore, with her finding the similarities between the two situations and making the most out of the second, while realizing even more what happened in the past.
In that regard, the comment about cinema gains another level, with Navasca stating that not just watching, but also shooting movies can help people. This meta level, which actually permeates the narrative, works quite well for the film, also adding a rather realistic element about what goes on behind the scenes.
The combination of all the above is excellently implemented through Chen Sing Yap's brilliant editing, which connects the two interchanging timelines in a way that makes the comments even more impactful, while inducing the short with a fast pace that suits its narrative nicely. Laura King's cinematography is also on a high level, with her capturing the two settings with realism and artistry.
Jadyn Nasato as Ana is convincing in both axes, with her highlighting how her character has changed, and continues to change eloquently. Jennifer Villaverde as Celine, the mother in the actual event, and Angelica Alejandro as Joyce, the actress who plays the mother in the movie, are also quite appealing to watch, with them presenting the two conflicts in realistic and impactful fashion.
“Desync” has a style and approach that were quite difficult to pull off, with the meta levels appearing throughout, but it easy to say that Minerva Navasca passed the ‘test' with flying colors.
