Take Me Home | USA | 2022 | 16 min | directed by Liz Sargent | Live-Action Drama

Nominee, 2023 Sundance Short Film Grand Jury Prize – Best Short Film

After their mother’s death, members of a Korean-American family deal with disability and estrangement. Anna, a cognitively disabled woman and her sister Emily must reunite and learn to communicate in order to move forward.

What makes Take Me Home different from other films in this genre is its cinematic approach. The filmmakers create a documentary feel that is as deeply human as it is visually captivating. The film takes its time to show the viewer the world that Emily and Anna live in, offering understated performances.

Emotionally poignant moments are grounded in the subtext and body language of the actors. While a lesser film might use trauma and sentimentality in the pursuit of sympathy, Take Me Home shows the viewer humanity in the pursuit of empathy.

The film is a sister collaboration, with the role of Anna played by Liz’s sister Anna Sargent, who was born with a cyst on her brain leaving her with little short-term memory and various degrees of cognitive and physical disabilities. Take Me Home is her acting debut and she steals every scene that she’s in. She plays opposite established professional Jeena Yi, who serves as the entry point for the audience to see into Anna’s world, and brilliantly navigates the difficult role of feeling like the world is on her shoulders and there’s no one to help her.

In the end, it’s when Emily sees Anna for who she truly is, an independent and capable woman, that she realizes that she doesn’t have to navigate the uncertainty of the future alone.

About Liz Sargent

Liz Sargent is a Korean American Adoptee writer and director, who’s award-winning work explores themes of adoption, disability and family. She has been awarded a NY Emmy, Best Director at Diversity in Cannes, Best Screenplay at Brand Film Festival London. Her films have been released in 6 languages, screened at Sundance, SXSW, Venice Biennale Danza, Lincoln Center and broadcast on PBS.