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.
Livestreams with Grandma Puzzle (6 minutes) directed by Emily Sheskin. Adele has always done jigsaw puzzles, first with her mother, then her children and grandchildren. Now living alone, she still puzzles (two or three a day), but she gets lonely. After watching her son play an online game on Twitch, she discovered a whole community, which led her to begin livestreaming doing her puzzles. The film touches on the loneliness that sometimes accompanies aging, but highlights the ways we find community.
The Snip (9 minutes) directed by Alain Delannoy. This animated doc focuses on vasectomy. We hear various men talking about the decision to have this minor medical procedure done. (Yes, it is minor, even though many men cringe at the thought.) It is not pushy, but it definitely lays out the benefits and tries to override the fear that some men have. It’s built around the question of what it means to be a man.
Amal | Hope (18 minutes) directed by Eros Zhou. This film highlights the friendship and collaboration of Palestinian pianist Bishara Haron and Israeli pianist Yaron Kohlberg. These two men have a professional partnership that has overcome the political divisions of the land they live in. The film touches on such divisions, but never really looks at how it has affected the two. The film is filled with the piano music they have made together.
Out There (13 minutes) directed by Alexis Smith. The filmmaker spends time with a group of New Zealand believers in extraterrestrials. They recount their experiences and spend the evenings looking up at and filming skies, trying to see anomalous movement that could be alien.
