Each year there are Oscars? awarded in three categories of short films: Live Action Shorts, Animated Shorts, and Short Documentaries. Programs of these shorts can be seen in various places around the country. Check at 2023 Oscar? Nominated Short Films – ShortsTV for more information. The Animated Shorts category always has a broad range of…
?No one can say you didn?t try.? I?m not a fan of watching or playing golf, but I am in awe of those who can play at the professional level. That?s because I?m absolutely awful at it. Craig Roberts?s The Phantom of the Open is the story of a novice who tries to play at…
Short films can be good training for future filmmakers, or they can be an artform in themselves. Each year the Academy awards Oscars to three short films: Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short, and Best Documentary Short. The nominees for these categories come from around the world and represent excellence, just as all the…
?Benjamin Taylor is leaving living today.? Sometimes it takes the specter of death to bring light into life. Running Naked, from director Victor Buhler, is a feel-good dramedy that helps us see the beauty in life, even if we know that life is finite. Perhaps that finitude helps us see the meaning of it all….
Life is often about chasing after dreams. But is the chase itself enough to make for a complete life? In Greta Bellamacina?s Hurt by Paradise, we watch two women who are chasing after dreams that are probably beyond their grasps. Should we see this as a celebration or with pity?or both? Celeste Blackwood (played by…
I want to use this report to touch on a few of the films that are part of the Narrative Feature section at the Slamdance Film Festival. I?ve got to admit that as I?ve been focusing on shorts for a bit, it took a bit of a mental shift to wait for a story to…
Some stories and the worlds they bring to us are too big for a single film. Sometimes that means trilogies or ongoing sequels without end (like Star Wars). But for Steve McQueen to bring us a vision of the world he grew up in, it required the Small Axe anthology. This is a series of…
?We must become the shepherd of our own destinies? Mangrove, the opening film of Steve McQueen?s Small Axe anthology, is a tale of racial struggle against police abuse. It is based on the true story of the Mangrove Nine, a group of men and women put on trial in London. (Yes, that?s right, racial prejudice…
Based on a true story, The Keeper, from director Marcus H Rosenm?ller, is the story of a German POW who in the post-war years becomes one of the most famous football (soccer to Americans) players in England. Along the way the story looks the difficulty of forgiving both our enemies and ourselves. And there?s a…
?I?ve got to go to work. I have not got a choice.? We are told that if we work hard, we will find success. For many the ?gig economy? seems to be the way they can take control of their lives and find the financial success they need. Ken Loach?s film Sorry We Missed You…
