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short documentaries

Saturday at AFI Fest 2021

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If you’re in the mood for a time-bending coming-of-age story, Petite Maman will do the trick. From director Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady On Fire, Tomboy) this is the story of eight year old Nelly, who after her grandmother’s death goes to the grandmother’s house with her parents. This is her mother’s childhood home. Nelly remembers her mother telling her about building a hut in the woods. One day her mother suddenly leaves without telling Nelly. When Nelly plays in the woods, she meets Monica, a girl her age who is building hut just as her mother described. When she goes to Monica’s house, we see it is the same house she is staying in, only many years earlier.  We (and Nelly) understand pretty quickly that she’s encountered her mother as a girl. Nelly moves back and forth between present and past houses and people. As she does so, she learns about her mother, her mother’s fears, and her own insecurities.

As in Sciamma’s previous films, Petite Maman has wonderful cinematography and brilliant character studies. It’s not so much a story of time travel per se as it is a mystical connection that will forever bond Nelly with her mother. Has it always been a bond that her mother has known?

Hit the Road is the premiere film from Iranian director Panah Panahi. This is a bizarre road trip with a loving (although it’s hard to tell sometimes) family driving across the country for some unknown reason. (It’s somewhat revealed later in the film.) The father is in the backseat with his leg in a cast. (Is it really broken?) The eldest son is driving with the mother beside him in front. The very energetic younger son seems to bounce around the car. And there’s a sick dog in the back. The chaos becomes a bit claustrophobic as we travel with them in the car.

The difficulty with the film is being not quite sure what it is about what is happening in Iran that has triggered this emergency road trip. I can conject various possibilities, but I expect the film’s Iranian audience would have a much better grasp of the situation.

And, of course, I have some shorts to share.

In Are You Still There? from directors Rayka Zehtabchi and Sam Davis, we spend a hot day with Safa when her car battery dies and she must wait in a strip mall parking lot until her mother can get off work to come jump the car. It is a long day (condensed to 15 minutes) that ends in triumph.

The documentary short Video Visit by Malika Zouhali-Worrall shows us the program at the Brooklyn Public Library that allows families of those held in New York City jails to have video call with their incarcerated families. It lets us discover the difficulties families have visiting in person, and the bureaucratic hurdles the library staff faces to try to keep this important program in place.  Libraries rule! (23 minutes)

Yoruga, directed by Federico Torrado Tobón, is a brief story of a lonely man in the not to distant future who goes to “Noah’s Ark”, a facility where some animals still survive. He can afford a one minute visit with one of these animals, and he shares a bit of his life in that short time. (7 minutes.)

My Heroes Were Cowboys – Meet a Real Horse Whisperer

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“As much love as you put in to them, they’re going to give that back to you.”

My Heroes Were Cowboys, a short documentary (running time: 22 minutes) from Tyler Greco, is the story of what we have come to think of as a horse whisperer. He is a man who has the ability to connect with horses on manly levels.

Robin Wiltshire grew up in rural Australia in an emotionally cold home. He was viewed as “the runt of the litter” and received very little love from his father. Movie and TV westerns were his escape and his dream was to be able to work with horses. He now lives in Wyoming where he trains horses for films. You’ve probably seen some of his work, because it includes working with the Budweiser Clydesdales in commercials.

MY HEROES WERE COWBOYS. ROBIN WILTSHIRE in MY HEROES WERE COWBOYS. Cr. NETFLIX © 2021

Wiltshire is very much at home with his horses and connects with them individually.  That connection is based on finding a spark in each one that allows the relationship between trainer and animal to be beneficial for each.

The film provides beautiful vistas of Wyoming as we watch Wiltshire work with the horses and share a bit of his own view of what that work entails. As the quote above notes, he puts love into that work. His approach of using love in such a way should also bear like fruit in our own personal relationships.

My Heroes Were Cowboys is available on Netflix

Photos courtesy of Netflix.

The Best of AFI Docs 2021

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Now that AFI Docs has wrapped up, it’s time to see the winners and to make note of my favorites.

Here are the award winners from the festival:

AUDIENCE AWARD: FEATURE

STORM LAKE

DIRS: Jerry Risius and Beth Levision. For 30 years, in Storm Lake, Iowa, Art Cullen and his family have been publishing a Pulitzer Prize-winning local newspaper. But, with newspapers everywhere going extinct, how long can they keep it up?

AUDIENCE AWARD: SHORT

SHELTER

DIR: Smriti Mundhra. A verité documentary that follows three young children and their families as they grapple with housing insecurity in Los Angeles.

SHORT FILM GRAND JURY PRIZE

RED TAXI

DIR: Anonymous. As protests in Hong Kong escalate, taxi drivers experience a city in upheaval driving the streets day and night. Anonymously filmed by locals.

SHORT FILM SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

THE COMMUNION OF MY COUSIN ANDREA

DIR: Brandán Cerviño Abeledo. Andrea’s First Communion ceremony lacks glamour. For Andrea, things without sparkles are meaningless.

SHORT FILM SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

S P A C E S (M E Z E R Y)

DIR: Nora Štrbová. A multi-textured animated exploration of memory as a container of identity, based on the personal story of the filmmaker and her brother who was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

I have my own personal favorites. Storm Lake was among my favorites, along with My Name Is Pauli Murrayand the episodes that were shown of 9/11: One Day in America (that one was a surprise to me).

Among the Shorts, my favorites were When We Were Bullies, and two that I think need to be paired together: Under the Lemon Tree and Mission:Hebron.

It was a very good set of films throughout the festival. My thanks to AFI and to all the sponsors for allowing me to cover the festival.

Day 3 at AFI Docs

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Today’s films reflect a look at history. That includes a look at a wonderful music festival from 50 years ago—that isn’t Woodstock, and an in depth look at one of the darkest days of recent American history.

In 1969 the world knew all about Woodstock. A few hundred miles away another music festival took place that has been hidden away for half a century. Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) takes us to the 6 weeks of the Harlem Cultural Festival that featured the crème de la crème of Black music at the time. We see Mahalia Jackson, The Staple Singers, Sly and the Family Stone, B.B. King, The Fifth Dimension, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and many more.

This is an amazing collection of musical history of the time, but even more it is a look back at the issues that were occurring fifty years ago, and that still are a part of society’s struggles today. Directed by Questlove, this film makes a point that music speaks of and to the struggles of people. The fact that this festival has been unknown for so long is a sign that we still need to hear these voices. Summer of Soul will soon be available in theaters and on Hulu.

As we draw close to the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attack on America, National Geographic, in official collaboration with the 9/11 Museum and Memorial, has created a documentary series, 9/11: One Day in America. The series presents oral history from some of the people who survived that day: firefighters, people who escaped from the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These are intimate, personal, and often very graphic and emotional memories.

The first three episodes of the series are having their world premiere as part of AFI Docs. Those three episodes begin just before 6:00 a.m. and move through 10:50 a.m., shortly after Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania. Part of the purpose of the series is to make this a human story. In our minds 9/11 has found a place in the American mythos. We politicize it. We make it about heroism (and that is a big part of that day). We see a big picture, but this series is about many of the pieces that are the human beings involved. Those human stories are to be treasured.

I’ll be honest. This wasn’t the top of my list to see during the festival, but I thought it was important to include. The way the stories are told by these survivors, with archival footage providing much of the visuals, is truly compelling. That is not to say it is easy to watch. This is not the kind of thing to binge watch. I needed to take a few breaks along the way to process all I was seeing and hearing.

And as always, I want to share some shorts. Today I’ll note a pair of animated shorts. They are docs, but done in animation. In The Train Station, Lyana Patrick very briefly (two minutes) tells the story of her father being sent to the Lejac Indian Residential School and his mother’s weekly long walk along the railroad tracks to bring him food and to help him keep his language The film doesn’t speak of what went on at the school, but rather celebrates how Patrick’s grandmother’s love helped to form her father to be a leader among First Nation people.

Spaces (Mezery) is an animated exploration of memory—and the loss of memory. It chronicles filmmaker Nora Štbová’s brother’s struggle with losing all short-term and then all memory as the result of a tumor. A touching and loving bit of her own memory of that experience.

Photos courtesy of AFI

A Look at Oscar® Nominated Short Documentaries

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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 short documentaries

Colette (25 minutes, directed by Anthony Giacchino). At 90 years old, Colette is one of the last remaining veterans of the French Resistance. She has never, in the years since the war, stepped foot in Germany. Now, with a young researcher, she is going to the Concentration Camp where her brother died. It is an emotional trip for both women. It makes the story of the Resistance and of her brother very personal.

A Concerto Is a Conversation (13 minutes, directed by Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot). Kris Bowers is a rising star among Hollywood composers. But he sometimes wonders, as an African American if he is “supposed to be in the spaces that I’m in.” As he talks with his grandfather, he hears of growing up in the Jim Crow south, and finding a way to a better life in Los Angeles, which shaped the family Bowers was born into. This is a bit of a celebration of family, and especially the bond between Bowers and his grandfather.

Do Not Split (35 minutes, directed by Anders Hammer). In the spring of 2019, when the Chinese government proposed extraditing Hong Kong people to China, protests began. By September (when the documentary joins the protests) these protests had gotten very large and filled with violence, by both protesters and police. This film takes us into those protests. It shows us the passion of the young people involved. But we really don’t get a lot of context to fully understand all the issues that come into play.

Hunger Ward (40 Minutes, directed by Skye Fitzgerald). In Yemen, war and famine have resulted in large numbers of children starving. This is a look into two clinics and the doctors who are trying to save the lives of these children. The film is a brutal experience—not because of violence, but because of the near hopelessness of the situation. Viewers should know they have to steal themselves for some of these scenes, which include children dying. It’s also important to note that the US is a key supporter and supplier of the Saudis who have blocked aid from reaching Yemen.

A Love Song for Latasha (19 minutes, directed by Sophia Nahli Allison). “Say her name” has become an important phrase in our culture as we remember the deaths of African Americans needlessly killed. Fifteen year old Latasha Harlins, was killed trying to buy Orange Juice. That event became a focal point in the 1992 Los Angeles uprising. This film, related by a cousin and a friend of Latasha does more than say her name. It tells of a life. It is not about a victim, but about what has been lost.

My favorite among these is A Concerto Is a Conversation. It points to the struggle people have endured, but also shows a bit of hope that we can do better. I hesitated to call Hunger Ward a “favorite”, because it is very difficult to watch. But it is a powerful and important story that much of the world is overlooking.

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

Welcome to the 2021 Slamdance Film Festival

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Like festivals all around the world over this last year, Slamdance Film Festival is going digital. Over 100 films will be available to watch from February 12-25. Slamdance, as the name implies, skews a bit to the edgier side of independent films. But that doesn’t mean it’s all weird, all the time. There are some very interesting films that will be part of the online festival.

Naturally there are feature films, both narrative and documentary, with a wide range of subject matter. There is also a load of short films. These include the traditional shorts sections of live action narrative, animated, and documentary shorts. But Slamdance also always has some sections that are a bit more out there. This year, that includes, “The Department of Anarchy”, “Experimental Shorts” and “DIG: Digital, Interactive, and Gaming”. Slamdance is also featuring a special section of shorts called “Unstoppable” that deals with people with disabilities. There will also be panel discussions about filmmaking and the business along the way.

I plan on reporting on many of the features, some in single film review, some in small groups of films, throughout the week. I’ll also be spending some time with the shorts and bringing reports on many of them.

Because this is a virtual festival, it means that you, too, can be part of the festival. Festival passes are available at the festival website for an amazingly low price of $10. That gets you access to the wide range of films without standing in line or filling a crowded screening room. (Even though many of us are yearning to return to theaters for films, we can’t just yet.)