Oscar nominated shorts: Documentary
Reviews of the five short films nominated for the Academy Award in the documentary category.
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Director Molly O’Brien made this documentary of her only surviving family member, her aunt Orin O’Brien, who joined the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1966 as a double bassist — the only female at the time — and stayed more than a half-century. It’s a fascinating portrait of a woman born of two movie stars, George O’Brien and Marguerite Churchill, who witnessed how their personal lives suffered when they could no longer be the star of the show and decided it’s more satisfying in the long run to be a supporting player. Orin’s passion for making music and teaching the next generation of artists (and the next, and the next) comes beaming through the screen. Never a mother, she says her students are like her children and her (many) basses are like pets. Her next mission finding good foster homes for them. A quintessential portrait of someone who always put the art before the artist.
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra” is currently available on Netflix.
Instruments of a Beating Heart
I suppose this film will be heartbreaking to some. It shows the vast difference between schooling methods in Japan and the U.S., focusing on a first-grader, Ayame, who often has trouble tamping down her emotions and fitting into the orderly routine at her school. Given a chance to try out to play an instrument in their class’ performance of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” — a welcome to the incoming next year of students — Ayame finds herself shamed to tears in front of the class by the teacher. Eventually she perseveres, but is the lesson she learned really the right one? The doc’s lack of context about her life outside of class feels like an oversight.
Incident
This tense piece of journalism recounts the police shooting of a Chicago barber, Harith “Snoop” Augustus, in 2018. It was already a tense situation on the South Side because another police officer was about to begin his trial for killing a Black man four years earlier. The entire documentary consists of footage from surveillance cameras and officers’ body cameras. It depicts a confused encounter where provisional (rookie) police officers attempt to detain Augustus, even though he has a valid concealed carry license for his gun. He panics and flees, trying to pull his gun from his holster, but is shot five times and killed. The cops tell the shooter, “You did nothing wrong,” over and over again — and indeed, his punishment consisted of a two-day suspension. Sobering and stark.
I Am Ready, Warden
This one of the most honest and emotionally true depictions of the death penalty I’ve ever seen. Most such documentaries would start and end with the plight of John Henry Ramirez, a former Marine who viciously stabbed to death another man, Pablo Castro and then fled to Mexico. Eventually he was captured, tried and given the death penalty that, now nearly two decades later, is about to be carried out. His adopted godmother, Jan Trujillo, is a saintly old woman who prays on his behalf and lobbies to have his sentence commuted. But then director Smriti Mundhra goes further, and deeper. He interviews the son of the man killed, Aaron Castro, and allows him space to process his feelings — which are not ones of forgiveness. And the new district attorney, Mark Gonzalez, who begins proceedings to halt the execution. And also Ramirez’ own son, Israel, born in Mexico during his reprieve from justice. It’s impossible not to have sympathy for Ramirez, who acknowledges his guilt and has accepted his fate with a sense of grace. But the film never tries to gloss over his crimes and the those he’s hurt. A truly outstanding portrait of a controversial issue that forces you to truly think, and feel.
Death by Numbers
Director Kim A. Snyder’s short doc is a portrait of Samantha Fuentes, one of the victims of the 2018 Parkland, Fla. school shooting. It follows her as she tries to reconcile her feelings of rage and sadness as she is called to testify at the sentencing of the killer, Nikolas Cruz, to see if he will receive the death penalty, and later at the victims’ testimonial portion. A gifted writer, Sam is able to better put into words her conflicting emotions than most of her peers, making her a sympathetic subject for this film. A times the doc leans a little too much into its feelings, such as literally scribbling out the face of Cruz when he appears in court, which feels false and petulant. Sam’s final direct confrontation with him, though, is incredibly powerful and moving.