Going the Distance
GOING THE DISTANCE
“You're too far for my hands to hold you, but too near for my heart to love you.” - Heraline Review by Victor Eustáquio A Film by Hao Dong Someone once said "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." In a long distance romance at some point, both participants find themselves struggling to justify why it’s all worth it. They find themselves standing in front of a mirror, trying to talk themselves into being fine with being in love with someone who is so very far away. Because it’s a hard relationship to pull off. In Going the Distance, the gap between physical separation and emotional connection is one that many couples struggle to bridge. But when all that separation and longing is worth it — it’s WORTH IT. If your connection with another person is that powerful, then you absolutely have to forget about conventional logic and go for it.
However, it does help to hear from someone who’s gone through that you’re going through. Fortunately Hao Dong’s ‘Going the Distance’ portrays it excellently. This short documentary shows how long-distance love is more unique and worthy than people might think. The film shows how cross-national couples communicate, feels, spend their times when they are far far away from each other. The documentary deeply explores the stories of couples who have become successful to continue the relationship and those who couldn’t. Although long distance love is not a new topic but I must say Hao Dong has chosen a very sensitive, unnoticed and worth subject for his documentary. There is no doubt that in 21st century, globalization has caused the separation of lots of couples but at the same time the advancement of communication technology and electronic media also helped us a lot to keep the long distance relationship. In early days there was a saying ‘Out of sight and out of mind’ but today nobody can say that he or she is out of my sight. Skype, Face Time, Whats App and other video call services has given us the opportunity to see and talk with our loved ones any time we wish.
It’s very interesting that in ‘Going the Distance’ Hao Dong has given emphasizes on feeling finding rather than fact finding. When couples talk about how they feel, meeting each other after several months or years and how they feel when they go to the airport to see off their partners after staying together for few days, it touches our heart. Sometimes the bonding is so strong that the long distance fails to break the relationship but there are also cases where the participant feels so lonely that they find themselves struggling to justify why it’s all worth it. But it’s very clear from everyone’s point of views that we shouldn’t stay away from making love with someone only due to the boundaries of nations, religions or race. Life is very short, let us give it a chance to fall in love. New York based multi award winning filmmaker Hao Dong narrates the stories such a way that it touches our heart. The cinematography is excellent, composition of each frame is so cinematic that sometimes we forget that it’s not a fiction film, it’s a documentary. Hao Dong definitely deserves praise for it. It would be unfair if I don’t say anything about the romantic back ground music. Combination of guitar, piano and mouth organ create a long lasting melody whose essence remains in our mind even long after the completion of film. Finally I would like to say, not only for several international film awards, not only for the huge praise of the film critics, one should definitely watch film “Going the Distance” just to feel the essence of love if he / she ever has / had long distance partner.
Victor Eustáquio is an award-winning film producer and screenwriter and the Director of Calcutta International Cult Film Festival. A novelist; screenwriter; film producer and composer, Victor currently lives in Portugal and holds a BA in Political Science and a PhD in African Studies. As COO of HLC Studios, Victor coordinates the company’s various distribution strategies to maximize the value of HLC’s content across all current and emerging digital exhibition platforms.
