Horror and magical realism aren’t really my favorite genres, but when they are in smaller doses I can be enticed to watch a few. Here are some that are part of the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival. The Pearl Comb (20 minutes) directed by Ali Cook. This is a...
Since I fit in the demographic, I like to check out the way shorts treat aging and the changes that come with years that have piled up. The “Golden Age” section at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival had several different perspectives. I find it a bit...
Documentary shorts have the ability to introduce people to issues and people that we need to know about. They can show us a world in need of healing and community. Here are a few of the short docs from the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival that call us to pay...
Here are some of my favorites (so far) of the animated films at HollyShorts Film Festival. Animated films at festival range in style and theme, yet they are almost always interesting ways of getting thoughts across. Some of the animated films are artistic, some...
Some documentaries call us to pay attention to important issues. Others show us the lighter side of life—finding happiness or just something a bit entertaining. Here are a few of the latter documentary shorts playing at the Oscar-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival....
The HollyShorts Film Festival is underway with 427 films from around the world. Shorts are not second class films. They remind me of Edgar Allen Poe’s rules for short stories: they must be able to be taken in in one sitting, and every word (or with films, picture)...
The Sparrow in the Chimney, from Ramon Zürcher, is a dark family story filled with brokenness and unspoken trauma. Yet, the title (and an early scene which embodies the title) gives the film a sense of hope that the darkness can be escaped. In the end, that escape is...
The stories we tell are not always our real stories. Sometimes, we spend so much time with the stories we tell that we risk losing our real story. Such is the case in Souleymane’s Story, from director Boris Lojkine. Souleymane’s Story won the Jury Award and Best Actor...
As I write this review, the US Senate is debating a massive tax and spending bill that holds great benefits for the wealthy. (It will probably be dealt with before the review is published.) Part of that benefit would increase the exemption for estate tax to...