DOCUMENTARY SHORTS
Overall, a strong slate of films this year. Varied in type and style but none of them so tragic that I needed to take time to compose myself after, which was nice.
Nai Nai and Wai Po - This was probably my personal fave. The film maker documents the personalities of his two grandmothers, maternal and paternal who live together and share a bed, like sisters. It's very unstructured but you get a sense of who these women are and how much they love their grandchild. They are zany, as well as thoughtful and this gets a high cuteness score.
The Barber of Little Rock - About a man whose mission it is to build generational wealth for black and underserved communities. Lots of good information, character studies, really important work that is inspirational as well as educational. It will have you wanting to open a bank for microlending by the end.
Island in Between - All about Kinman Island, a tiny spit of land right next to mainland China but belonging to Taiwan. It's unstructured; you kind of pick up the essence of the place and its personal significance to the film maker. Somewhere during this piece the guy sitting in the row behind me started snoring.
The ABCs of Book Banning - Comprised of mostly interviews with children talking about banned books and grappling with why any books would be banned at all. This reminds you about the absolute shocking reality of how many books and which titles are currently banned or restricted in the U.S. while I sit here and shake my head about it. See my Zone of Interest review meltdown. I'm not doing enough! I checked, but the guy was still sleeping through this one.
The Last Repair Shop - I'm feeling like this one is the winner. The title refers to the place where LAUSD repairs instruments to be provided free to the kids in the public schools. There are character studies done of both the children who rely on the instruments and the repair personnel all reflecting on their own lives in terms of music or what it means to be broken and repaired. The director for this one gets everyone to cry, including me. But the kicker is that it ends with an original composed work being recorded by all of the people that you just met in the doc! See? You'd cry too. The guy behind me startled awake a couple of times and I was glad he wasn't going to miss it but then he started snoring again! These docs are NOT easy to catch. You typically get one weekend and that is it! I couldn't believe he was wasting it!
ANIMATED SHORTS
Our Uniform - Short and sweet with a really inventive animation style that created a world out of fabrics and notions. I maybe wanted a little more story here, but it was well done.
Letter to a Pig - Here we go again! At this point the guy sitting in front of me fell asleep. But, I mean, really! He was laying all the way over in the seat next to him so that I thought he had left. This short was about a holocaust (I think?) survivor retelling his story to a classroom of bored students. His story involved a pig, whose presence saved him from being captured. He had grown up believing pigs were filthy and then identified heavily with this animal that saved him. There's a big old dream sequence of kids hunting a pig (were the kids Nazis? I kind of lost the thread here) and the music crescendoes to this really taut moment and then cuts out to silence. And in that moment, the sleeping homie in front of me lets out the biggest snort snore ever! I thought it was the pig on the screen seeking revenge and then he shook himself awake and sat back up. Man, was that funny! Anyway, the short kind of confused me.
Pachyderme - A kid is blandly retelling what trips to her grandparents' house were like and you're just letting it wash over you until you realize you're missing part of the story. This one turned out to be incredibly moving and well done. Maybe my favorite.
95 Senses - It's a Huell Howser sounding guy telling you about the five senses that humans have in a cute homey way until he casually reveals he has killed people! What a turn that takes. His last sense is taste and it's all about his last meal. Humanizing and somehow hopeful! At this point, the guy in front of me laid down again breifly but then seemed to think better of it and rallied.
War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko - This seems like the winner with Sean and Julian Lennon and Peter Jackson among the stars listed in the credits. It just feels like it will get more notice. This one is about two soldiers in a WWI type set up who play chess together when they aren't being ordered to kill each other. It's cute and incorporates the song well.
LIVE ACTION SHORTS
You guys, I forgot to have my coffee before I went and today I was the one who fell asleep! I don't think I executed any perfectly timed snort-snores, but still.
The After - This one had some brutal surprises early on! I like a story that takes you unawares. It's claim to fame is being produced by and starring David Oyelowo. I mostly liked this short but absolutely hated the song cue at the end! I don't know why it bothered me so much but it left off on a bad note for me.
Red, White and Blue - A cautionary tale for American voters with a strong twist. The claim to fame here is Brittney Snow from Pitch Perfect. This was a strong offering.
Knight of Fortune - A comedy about grief! You've already won me over. Absurd developments? Yes! A little bit of heart warming? Perfect. This was my favorite.
Invincible - Uh oh. Here's where I dozed off. This was a French film about a troubled boy on his last day. It was painful and raw and some other things while I slept.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar - Wes Anderson. A weird Russian nesting doll of story telling. Roald Dahl passes the story to Henry Sugar who passes the story to a Doctor who passes the story to a magical character who passes the story to a guru and then it goes back through all of those storytellers again. Whew! The good stuff: a quaint and complex production design with moving set pieces, backdrops flying in and out and visible stagehands. The bad stuff: restrained recitation of dialog; watching some of the best actors around become muted in their craft. It held my attention for more than halfway through and then I had to fight to stay in it. This one has all the star power so I guess that will get it all the votes?
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