IndyShorts 2020: Finalists

The Indy Shorts International Film Festival, presented by Heartland Film, is a unique festival that both showcases short films and offers cash prizes to many of its winning films. This year, the festival expanded its prize-winning categories to include Comedy, Student Films, Directorial Debut, and Heartland Horror. With 128 films across 18 programs, Indy Shorts is proud to announce that half of this year’s lineup was either directed or co-directed by women, and that the winners of the Narrative and Documentary grand prizes will qualify for the 2021 Academy Awards (as long as they meet all other requirements).

The festival will be held in a hybrid format using both the Eventive Virtual Fest and four nights of screenings at Indianapolis’s Tibbs Drive-In.

Jack and Jo Don't Want to Die

This moody and evocative drama from writer/director Kantu Lentz is set in a dystopian alternate universe of 2001, where Jack (Justin Kirk, very intense) is a worker at a cryogenic freeze facility. His job is to wake up the clients when it’s the right time… or maybe just when their family stops paying for the service. One such case occurs when he revives Jo (a precocious Olivia Edward), a young girl who was put under with terminal cancer. She’s dismayed to learn that not only has she been awoken before a cure was found, but that no one is coming to retrieve her. Jo and Jack spend a night hanging out and bonding before she’s to be picked up by social services in the morning. It’s also Jack’s last night on the job because of a major event in his own life. A nice little humanistic sketch that left me wanting more.--Christopher Lloyd

Camp ALEC

I felt obligated to review this documentary short due to the correlation between its title and my first name. I’m glad I did as it was my favorite of the five shorts I watched/reviewed. “Camp ALEC” concerns a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based summer camp where non-speaking kids who rely on electronic tablets to communicate learn to read and write.

The kids and their counselors are so full of humor and heart. These are smart and funny folks. Both my wife and I got teary-eyed numerous times throughout the short’s 18 minute runtime. As a big sports fan I certainly dug the apparel the campers and counselors wore. I spotted Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Tigers, Ohio State Buckeyes, Michigan Wolverines (the OSU counselor and Michigan camper were actually working together, which amused me greatly), Los Angeles Chargers and last but certainly not least Chicago Bears (Bear down!) gear. “Camp ALEC” has big gun producorial talent in the form of The Kennedy/Marshall Company (the “Bourne” films, the “Jurassic World” franchise and much of Steven Spielberg’s recent output). Highly recommended! --Alec Toombs

Kapaemahu

This gorgeous animated short spins the legend of four travelers who came to Waikiki long ago who were what we would now call non-binary gender. They became healers and teachers who passed their wisdom down to the people. Later they underwent a transformation into stones that remain sacred to this day, if not always as revered as they should be. Directed by Dean Hamer, Joe Wilson and Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu, with animation by Daniel Sousa. I love the textured look of the drawing, almost like hieroglyphics sprung to life. A lovely story, beautifully told.--Christopher Lloyd