White Awake Film Analysis

White Awake Sends Tears from The Screen Right onto It's Viewers
By Joseph Reilly

In Alex Kyrou's 2015 short film, White Awake, therapy becomes one man's solace as his therapist helps him to find closure with his own life story.

White Awake is the cinematic equivalent to a boxer that doesn't wait a second after the bell has rung to knock out his opponent. With an emotionally gripping narrative surrounding an African American male subtly venting to his therapist about his flawed white parents, viewers are made to feel as they are sitting right there in the expensive room with them both. The tears on Joshua's face not only convey the love he has for them, but will certainly invoke the same tears from the audience, as each scene seems to top the next in emotional value. With all the sadness, one can wonder if the film could have used at least one light element of relief, but for what you take away from White Awake, it's hard to focus too much on that.

The narrative makes itself known right away.

During the sessions, the camera is set in the middle of the room, showing enough distance between the therapist and Joshua for the viewer to understand the setting without it being said. But, the intimacy is conveyed through close-up shots and this very distance by alluding to the fact that they may being sitting apart, but they both share tears over Joshua's tale. This brings the viewer right into their heads. It inserts them into the room and creates a sense of realism that's able to suspend the viewer from reality and drop them into the reality of White Awake instead. The film knows how to engender emotion and this is done partly by letting the viewer into the film and making them part of the session. The flashbacks are seamless because of this, lessening the oh so glaring jumping through time that's often done poorly in film. The viewers here won't be viewers but rather part of the