Considering the way children cope when faced with family challenges, director Justin Tyler Close turns the camera on his own early experiences in short film Where The Time Goes. Having watched the breakdown of their parents’ marriage, young brothers Blaise and Trier attempt to make sense of their new situation – looking to each other for support as their world shifts around them.

Enabling immediate intimacy by casting a real family as its central characters, Close drives a deep connection to his characters without villainizing either party. Approaching the project as a means of processing tension carried from his past, he draws upon the domestic scenes depicted in Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table Series, alongside the lasting impression left by Jeremy Comte’s Fauve and Meryam Joobeur’s Brotherhood.

Capturing the nuances of divorce and domestic conflict through a child’s eyes, Where The Time Goes reengages with a childlike perspective to develop understanding in adulthood, confronting the wounds left by Close’s parents’ separation while illustrating the resilience and adaptability of young minds – bringing a sense of realism to a film borne from reality itself.