Real life is often fodder for filmmaking. Films that are “based (or inspired) by true events” are not uncommon. That is true for shorts as well. Here are a few of the films at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival that have their genesis from real occurrences.
Rock, Paper, Scissors (20 minutes) directed by Franz Böhm. Near the front line of the Ukrainian war, a father and son try to maintain a hidden makeshift hospital. There are soldiers and children, all of whom need help. Supplies are limited. And the Russians are on the way. One of the soldiers asks, “Why are you still here?” Yet the father and son are committed to these lives—even if it could cost them their own. Rock, Paper, Scissors won a BAFTA Award for Best Short Film.
One of Them (13 minutes) directed by Mostafa Vaziri. In Iran, a young man, with others who have been arrested by the government are taken as forced labor on a night mission. They are given automatic weapons and told to slaughter a pit filled with dogs. While others get to the job, the one young man refuses to take part in a task that is meant to dehumanize him.
Largo (19 minutes) directed by Salvatore Scarpa and Max Burgoyne-Moore. A child refugee in England who has been taken in by a loving woman misses his parents who weren’t able to make the journey with him. He is also subject to the anti-immigrant sentiment of many of the inhabitants. A letter purportedly from his father tells him, “Home is like a turtle in its shell; you take it with you whereever you go.” When his homesickness gets to be too much, he fixes up a boat and sets off back to sea to try to find his parents. But the sea is treacherous. There are thousands of lives lost each year.
James Hyde: The Very Thought of You (10 minutes) directed by Benjamine Uttley. During World War II, many Trinidadians joined with the British. James Hyde was one of them. We see his life with the English woman he loved and in the cockpit of his plane in the midst of a dogfight over Nijmegen. This film is a tribute to forgotten heroes.
The Kid in You (5 minutes) directed by Abel J. Santa. This animated film is a poetic paean to childhood, but it is set in the border between life and death. After collapsing, a boy is taken to the hospital and must have emergency surgery. Will he live forever as a child or return to the world for a more complete life? Which is better? I find it strange that this film was in the Family and Kids Animation section. Its thoughts are too deep for most children, and the situation could be extremely frightening.
