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people with disabilities

A Look at the Oscar® Nominated Live Action Shorts

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When it is time to award the best in films each year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences include three categories of short films in their Oscar ® presentations. Most people don’t get to see many shorts. They play at festivals, and occasionally in front of a feature film. But short films are an art form worth attention. Many (probably most) feature filmmakers started out making short films. To tell a story in such a brief format takes skill. All the Oscar-nominated short films will be playing in theaters and on virtual cinema in special programs.

Let’s take a look at the Oscar ® nominated live action shorts.

Feeling Through (19 minutes, directed by Doug Roland). Tereek, a homeless teen helps Walter, a blind-deaf man (played by a deaf-blind actor), find his bus to get home. He learns to see the man as more than a problem, and also gets perspective on his own trials.  This is a very moving story. In just a few minutes of screen time, we see tremendous growth in Tereek’s character. For him this is truly a life changing experience.

The Letter Room (33 minutes, directed by Elvira Lind). When a sensitive prison guard gets transferred to the mail room, his job is to read all the incoming and outgoing mail. He is enthralled with the very personal letters sent to a death row inmate. But perhaps the reality is less than he imagines. Nice performance from Oscar Isaac as a man who strives to be kind, even in an unkind environment.

The Present (25 minutes, directed by Farah Nabulsi). This Palestinian film is the story of a man who sets off with his daughter to go into town to buy an anniversary gift for his wife. The way is complicated by checkpoints, hostile Israeli soldiers, and segregated highways. It becomes a trial by humiliation. Can the man get the gift home and still maintain his stature in the eyes of his daughter? This look at life within the occupied Palestinian territories shows some of the injustice that people must face, with no real rights or power. The Present is currently streaming on Netflix.

Two Distant Strangers (29 minutes, directed by Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe). When a man wakes up in his girlfriend’s apartment, he sets off home to take care of his dog. But when he runs into trouble with a racist policeman, it ends tragically. Then he wakes up again…. This is something of a Black Lives Matter version of Groundhog Day. There are lots of different scenarios, but it always ends in the police killing of a black man.

White Eye (20 minutes, directed by Tomer Shushan). In Israel, a man finds his bike stolen weeks ago. It now belongs to a Somalian immigrant who bought it at bus station. When the police get involved it becomes far more complicated than the man wanted. The film moves from being about what rights a person might have to what is the right thing to do in a difficult setting.

My favorites among these are Feeling Through,because it brings hope out of darkness in a touchingly human way; and Two Distant Strangers, for the way it uses the time loop trope to emphasize the way the killing of black people seems be something we wake up to anew each day.

To see where you can see these shorts, go to https://shorts.tv/theoscarshorts/

Reporting from Slamdance – “Unstoppable” filmmakers (part 2)

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Diversity is being recognized as an important goal in the film industry. Many voices and many perspectives are needed in every art form, and that is very true of film. This year’s Slamdance Film Festival has made an express effort to bring the idea of ablism and the perspective of people with disabilities (PWD). There is a special section of shorts called “Unstoppable” that focuses on films by or about peoples with disabilities. It has a wide range of styles, tones, and content. There are documentaries, music videos, and narrative films. There are 22 films in the section, so I’ve divided my comments into two reports. This is the second report. The earlier report can be seen here. The Unstoppable section is presented by Hulu.

On the Outs. (37 minutes, directed by Jordan Melograna). This documentary follows three inmates with disabilities as they prepare for their release and reenter the world. One has mental illness, one has brain damage and has had hip replacement, one has visual impairment. Their disabilities certainly complicate the process, but even more that film shows the way the system falls far short of preparing even those without disabilities for a time after their sentence.

Safety Net. (12 minutes, directed by Anthea Williams.) A thirteen year old boy living with a disability has just entered emergency care after his mother was arrested. He is staying in a seedy motel with a guardian present. The first guardian is compassionate and encouraging. The relief guardian is stern and demanding. The boy’s future may well depend on this care and which guardian will dominate his time.

Single. (16 minutes, directed by Ashley Eakin). A young woman born with one arm faces the world with an attitude. She doesn’t want to be pitied or thought of as disabled. She responds to most people with anger when they note her missing arm. She’s been set up on a blind date, and discovers that her date only has one hand. She is irate at the person who set them up. Her date convinces hre to come to his rooftop and throw eggs at the wall to take out her anger at all those who have slighted her. A good therapy session for her.

Stilts. (7 minutes, directed by Dylan Holmes Williams) A young man who, like the rest of his family, lives with very large stilts attached to his legs. Because he’s so tall, he can’t get through an exit to the outside world. He seeks surgery to remove the stilts and be set free.

The Bin. (15 minute, directed by Jocelyn Tamayao). A father and his hearing impaired son are at odds over getting cochlear implants versus using sign language. The father wants to make his son “normal”; the son wants to live his own kind of normal.

The Co-op. (7 minutes, directed by Cameron S. Mitchell). A thief attempts to hold up a market late at night, but his plans hit a snag when the store is filled with PWD.

Union. (19 minutes, directed by Julia Neill). During the Civil War a woman returns home for Christmas, she brings with her a Union soldier to meet her family. They met when she, a surgeon, amputated his arm. Now they come for her father’s blessing. But how does he know the man will be able to take care of her? Perhaps it is his own insecurities that cause him to hesitate.

Unspoken. (27 minutes, directed by Emma Zurcher-Long, Julia Ngeow, and Geneva Peschka). Emma Zurcher-Long is a fourteen year old girl with autism. After years of not being able to communicate, it was discovered she could write using a keyboard. She shares information about her world and how it differs from ours. She breaks down the stereotypes and prejudices that surround her.

Verisimilitude.  (14 minutes, directed by David Proud). An actress who can’t get roles because she is in a wheelchair is hired for a movie to teach an abled actor how to act disabled. There are also several abled extras in wheelchairs. This film serves as a bit of judgment on an industry that often fails to see beyond a first appearance.

Road to Zion. (16 Minutes, directed by Andrew Reid). A undocumented Jamaican young man and his family (which includes a brother with a intellectual disability) struggle to make ends meet. Without a green card it is hard to get the kind of job that will bring the money his family needs. A local drug dealer makes it know he can work for him. What will he do to take care of his family?

A truly appreciate Slamdance and Hulu for making this special section possible. Of course, not everything suited my taste, but the voice that comes through from many of these shorts is important. It also shows how valuable it is to have diversity in filmmaking.

My top favorite from the section is Feeling Through. Others that I deeply appreciate are How Much Am I Worth?, On the Outs, and Unspoken.

Reporting from Slamdance – “Unstoppable” filmmakers (part 1)

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Diversity is being recognized as an important goal in the film industry. Many voices and many perspectives are needed in every art form, and that is very true of film. This year’s Slamdance Film Festival has made an express effort to bring the idea of ablism and the perspective of people with disabilities (PWD). There is a special section of shorts called “Unstoppable” that focuses on films by or about peoples with disabilities. It has a wide range of styles, tones, and content. There are documentaries, music videos, and narrative films. There are 22 films in the section, so I’m going to divide my comments into two reports. Here’s the first half.

A$$ Level. (4 minutes, directed by Alison Becker). This is a 90’s style rap music video about what life is like in a wheelchair—with attitude. You gotta love the attitude!

Best Friend. (6 minutes, directed by Cory Reeder). This is a story of a family moving from New York to LA. Their daughter is unhappy about leaving her friends, so her mother lets her get a dog. No PWD-specific content, but it does make use of two actors with disabilities (and a disabled dog).

Committed. (6 minutes, directed by Rachel Handler and Chrystal Arnette). When a young man enlists his best friend and his girlfriend’s best friend to help with a marriage proposal, the friends seek to undermine the proposal because they would be moving away. Also no PWD specific content, but actors with disabilities.

Endomic. (10 minutes, directed by Camille Hollett-French and Ipek Ensari). A brief look at the problem many women deal with because of endometriosis. One in ten menstruating women suffer from this painful ailment. The film, made by a researcher, points to the need for more funding to understand, diagnose, and treat this.

Feeling Through.(19 minutes, directed by Doug Roland). A homeless teen helps a blind-deaf man (played by a deaf-blind actor) find his bus to get home. He learns to see the man as more than a problem, and also gets perspective on his own trials. Feeling Through has been shortlisted for Oscar consideration. It is a very moving story.

Flying Eggs. (9 minutes, directed by Sheldon Chau). A man out on his morning run goes by a building where a boy is throwing eggs out the window. He goes up to the apartment in anger, but finds a boy with Down Syndrome. . . and a whole lot more.

Full Picture (12 minutes, directed by Jacob Reed). How do people perceive people who have a disability? When actress and activist Santina Muha had video chats with various people without them seeing her wheelchair, they all had a positive reaction to her. When she meets people for real, the first thing they notice is the chair. She’d prefer they notice her beautiful hair. It reminds us that we all make such assessments of people and need to look deeper than that first thing we notice.

How Much Am I Worth? (6 minutes, directed by Rachel Handler and Catriona Rubenis-Stevens). This serves as an indictment of the US healthcare system. We meet four women with disabilities and hear of the barrier of expense and bureaucracy that they encounter (even with insurance) for the care and equipment they need. When the comparison comes to how one of them is cared for in another country, we know that we should be doing better.

Human Helper. (6 minutes, directed by Shaina Ghuraya). A light sci-fi/comedy in which there are now AI androids (all pretty and females) have been developed to help people. However, they don’t quite know how to react to someone in a wheelchair. A woman in a wheelchair goes attempts to make it work. Many trials follow.

I Wish I Never. (5 minutes, directed by Shaina Ghuraya). The film begins with a note that 40% of women with disabilities experience sexual or physical assault in their life time. This is a music video that reflects on the experience of PWD in abusive relationships.

My Layers.(6 minutes, directed by Susanne Serres). This film uses dance and voice over to reflect the experience of psychosis and using creativity to overcome that separation from reality. It makes for a very visually interesting consideration of that affliction.