Award-winning short film director Carol Nguyen makes her feature documentary debut with a deeply affecting and personal documentary about family secrets and healing. With a pointed but sensitive lens, Nguyen speaks with her father, aunt and cousins to explore her paternal uncle Thach’s tragic death a decade ago.

The director deftly shines a light on how different generations and cultures deal with loss and grief, and how much has changed in our understanding of mental health in the intervening years. As the extended family travels back to Vietnam to say a bittersweet and ceremonial goodbye to Thach and both of his parents, they all begin to open up and come together with a newfound honesty and affection. Still Night, Burning House is a beautiful and visually stunning ode to the rebirth and renewal of one family, but it transcends that specificity to give an all-encompassing sense of forward momentum and hope for the future.