Oscar nominated shorts: Documentaries
Reviews of all five short films up for the Best Documentary Short Film Academy Award.
Perfectly a Strangeness
Possibly the most accurately titled movie ever. Three donkeys wander around an astronomical observatory in Chile devoid of people. That’s it. That’s the whole movie. There are some interesting shots and edits back and forth between animal and constructs, underlain by some bell-driven music. But this feels more like mere footage than a fully realized movie — closer to an experimental film than documentary. I think one just has to be in the right frame of mind to really become engrossed by this, possibly with some pharmacological accompaniment. You could call it an incredibly original film, in the sense that nobody else would ever think to make this.
The Devil is Busy
A powerful but decidedly partisan look at the abortion issue from the inside of a women’s health clinic in Georgia. Limited to abortions only before six weeks — before most women are even aware they’re pregnant — the staff struggle to carry out a duty they believe in while protestors outside blare amplified warnings dawn to dusk about going to hell. Much of the focus is on Traci, the head of security, who oversees a complex system to get “guests” in and out of the facility safely. I appreciated the honest, human portrait — but don’t look for a balanced view because you’re not going to get it here. The filmmakers are forthrightly on the side of the pro-choice contingent, and those on the other are explicitly depicted as the evil “other.” Still an illuminating work, and illuminates in a way I think those who made it aren’t even aware of.
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
A moving portrait of photojournalist and documentarian Brent Renaud, killed while covering the early days of the war in Ukraine in 2022. Name a hot spot in the world over the last quarter century, and Renaud was there: Ukraine, Haiti, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia. This documentary short spans his life and death, focusing on the work to bring witness to humanity’s most terrible acts so the rest of us can learn. There’s a heartbreaking moment where his brother and partner, Craig, films Brent’s body freshly placed into a coffin. Someone asks how he can turn a camera on his sibling in such a tender moment. “I know this is what Brent would be doing.”
All the Empty Rooms
I’m on the fence on this one. On the surface it’s a powerful subject: journalists who talk to the parents of children killed in school shootings and record photographs of their bedrooms to capture some of their essence. Many of the parents have left the rooms exactly the same as the day their kids died, so it’s a heartrending moment of pure empathy. And yet there’s a studied way about this film, and its tendency to focus more on Steve Hartman, the TV reporter on this mission, than the children themselves. I’m an old-school believer in “don’t report on the reporting,” and there’s too much of that here.
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone”
In this age of rage and endless protest, some peace activists in Israel try something different. Instead of yelling, making noise and throwing fake blood, they come up with a simple tactic: showing pictures of Palestinian children killed in the Gazan war. Silently they stand there, bringing a human face to the conflict. It’s a very effective form of protest, and this doc takes us behind the scenes, talking to the people organizing it. They hold debates after each protest, questioning if what they’re doing is effective or if they should emulate their more vociferous colleagues. Of course, some Israelis curse them and call them traitors. A humanistic look at a troubling crisis that eschews moral certitude.