ROAR
A story about love, music, and finding your voice
A Japanese American mother and daughter navigate the quiet distances between generations — bound together by music and a love neither knows how to say out loud.
🎉 Big Announcement
Official Selection · Tribeca Festival Shorts Program
1 of 7 nominees selected from over 9,000 submissions
The Story
Silence isn't an absence of sound—it's a different kind of music.
From the neon of Tokyo to the fog of San Francisco, young Tora is searching for where she fits. As a neurodivergent girl in a new culture, words often fail her, but music never does. Alongside her mother, Tora turns the chaos of a new life into a personal soundtrack, proving that you don't need a single word to be heard.
Behind the Film
Character Animation
Every movement of the mother and daughter was hand-crafted to reflect authentic Japanese American cultural nuance, from subtle gestures to expressive emotional beats.
Music & Sound Design
The headphones serve as a narrative device — the soundscape shifts between the daughter's private world of music and the shared silence between generations.
Visual Style
A warm, painterly aesthetic blends traditional Japanese art influences with contemporary animation to create a unique visual identity for the film.
Storytelling
ROAR explores the unspoken bond between a Japanese American mother and her daughter — a story about love, identity, and finding your voice across generations.
Film Stills
ILLUMINAI Studios
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