Raspberry (Short) Interview: Raymond Lee and Julian Doan

In the chaos of Sundance we had about 10 minutes to spare.  Luckily Raspberry was just 7 breezy minutes between me and snagging some lunch. At minute 1 my eyes were quickly pooling with water, by minute 2 I had tears streaming down my face, by minute 3 I was laughing, at minute 4 I was laughing through sobs, coming in at minute 5 I was audibly crying and sucking back nose drool, rolling on to minute 6 I was in shock and by the final minute I had a tension headache.

Raspberry is a film you have to experience for yourself

There is basically one plot point that is a spoiler, so don't worry, I'll steer clear.  A family is grieving the timely loss of their father and husband.  With almost no dialogue, we have a sense of the family dynamics and each child's relationship with their Dad.  What's more, we understand their fears and insecurities and how they are respectively dealing with their personal tragedy.  The experience of Raspberry is deeply personal and offers its viewer a glimpse into the sometimes awkward situations we can't avoid.

While it was mostly ugly crying for me, there is some levity brought by Raymond Lee.  It's little things like movements and ever-so slightly jarring sounds, that make you giggle.

Julian Doan played my heart like a mandolin

In our interview with writer/director Julian Doan, he basically explains to us that every single emotional beat was planned.  Every noise, every gesture was expertly created to sear my heart. Like I said, Raspberry feels born of personal experience and because of that, Doan sharing the film being a way to process his final moments with his own father was slightly less of a gut punch.  I mean, it was still like when you catch your pinky toe on the coffee table, but at least I felt like I saw it coming.

I know you're probably shaking your head because I know you think I'm a giant mush-ball that's an easy-sell for a movie like this, so if you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe Tim.

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