For most of the year, the short film categories are a mystery. The next time you attend a film festival, try and catch a collection of short films–they might land on the shortlist. This week Joey Moser will be breaking down the positives of every shortlisted short film eligible in the Animated Short Film, Documentary Short Subject, and Live Action Short Film categories. Today, we are diving into our final category: Documentary Short Subject. You can find our coverage of the Animated Short category here and the Live Action category here.
Story drives the Best Documentary Short Subject category every year–especially when it comes to winning the Oscar. I was a bit shocked when Ben Proudfoot (director of last year’s winner The Queen of Basketball) didn’t land on the shortlist this season. Both of his films, Mink! and The Best Chef in the World, are entertaining and shine a light on women whose stories needed a revival of sorts. This year’s race expands to stories of parenting, redemption, patriotism, and basketball. Last year, 82 films qualified, and that went up to 98 this season.
American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton
In the summer of 1968, Black Panther founder, Huey Newton, was charged with the murder of a white police officer in Oakland, California. Directors Andrew Abrahams and Herb Ferrette use testimonials from former Black Panthers, animation, and archival footage to bolster this true story and honor Newton’s legacy.
Abrahams and Ferrette lay out the facts from the very start of their documentary short, but they also profile Mr. Newton in a way that the media wouldn’t have done for a Black American at the time. He was seen as soft-spoken and articulate by his peers, and he was only stopped Newton’s girlfriend’s car because it was on a list of vehicles owned by members of the Black Panther party. There was a lot of focus on this case, because an officer has not been killed on duty in 20 years.\
This case was revolutionary for its time for several reasons, including the selection of the jury and for David Harper being selected as the jury foreman. It should be a no-brainer to have a diverse group of people serving as as they jury in order to deliver a varied perspective especially in such a volatile time in America’s history. I love how Abrahams and Ferrette are straightforward and use an artist’s rendering to help tell the story. It puts us into the courtroom.
Anastasia
Sarah McCarthy’s film takes an issue of human rights and zeroes in on an intimate scale. It is about loss chances, motherhood, and letting go, and it is very powerful.
Anastasia Shevchenko was arrested and placed under house arrest for speaking out against the government in her involvement with Open Russia. She was separated from her children, and her eldest daughter, Alina, died while she served her 767 day sentence. The Russian media declared that Shevchenko abandoned her daughter for the sake of politics.
McCarthy’s film centers on Shevchenko’s personal healing process as well as maintaining her bond with her other children, Vlada and Misha. The circumstances around Shevcheko’s arrest are spoken about, but that’s not what this film is necessarily about. It’s about trauma and learning how to let go of things you cannot control anymore. The family, along with Shevcheko’s mother, take a trip to scatter Alina’s ashes, and it’s an emotionally-wrought experience. A mother’s love and dedication knows no bounds, and Anastasia proves that dissenting voices will always fight to be heard.
Anastasia is streaming now on Paramount+.
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison
Live theater has the power to hit us so emotionally, because it remains the most immediate art form. You feel the emotion from the stage. The voices from an actor can ring in your ears louder. Cinque Northern’s film, Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison is about one woman’s evolution as a performer as she performs one of the most important pieces of her life.
The prison location on the plantation in Louisiana was named Angola after a large number of slaves came from that African country, and it is located on a sprawling 18 thousand acres of land. Northern’s film makes us wonder how that has a connection to Liza Jessie Peterson’s performance of The Peculiar Patriot by showing us clips of her performing it on stage. We hear the audience responding to her words, and, as an artist, Peterson always wanted “to activate” the crowd in front of her. She didn’t realize that a performance of her one-woman show would have such an impact of the incarcerated men at Angola.
Peterson is such a hypnotic performer. She locks us in during the interviews about her experience, but then she keeps us captivated when she talks about her past and disappointment of not landing the acting gigs she deserves. We don’t always know the path our life is going to take, and Peterson’s path to educate is captivating to watch. I want to see her on stage immediately to feel that passion and that power that she carries with her.
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison is available to stream on Paramount+.
As Far As They Can Run
We all want to live up to our potential, and As Far As They Can Run sheds a light on three young, disabled Pakistani people who need more love and encouragement. The Special Olympics are a few months away, and two social workers want to make a difference in the lives of these and shift their personal perspective.
We are introduced to Ghulam, Sana, and Sajawal, and they all have something in common. Their families have confined them to their properties because of their special needs. After the loss of his father, Ghulam continues to run away to find his dad again, so Ghulma’s brother chains his feet together. Sana’s grandmother fears for her granddaughter’s safety after she hears that a girl from another neighborhood was sexually assaulted. Sajawal’s father keeps him locked up except for one hour a week. Director Tanaz Eshaghian doesn’t paint these parents and guardians as bad people, but they are frustrated.
After these three start changing, there is a noticeable shift in their personalities with Sana especially excelling. Sajawal’s father, it seems, has put other things ahead of the well-being of his son, and we notice that his cell phone is always clutched in his hands.
As Far As They Can Run is a winning film about perseverance and the human spirit.
As Far As They Can Run is streaming on Paramount+.
The Elephant Whisperers
Kartiki Gonsalves’ The Elephant Whisperers isn’t just a loving tribute to the connection between human and animal, but it’s really a well-directed and gorgeously shot family drama.
In Southern India, Bomman and Bellie devote their lives to loving and caring for abandoned and orphaned baby elephants. I don’t care how cold-hearted you are, nothing is as whimsical and playful as a baby elephant. You have to be a monster to not think they are adorable. We meet Raghu, an elephant whose mother tragically died, and the couple couldn’t get him to reunite with the tribe. Then comes baby Ammu…
Bomman and Bellie love these animals as if they were their own children, and you can almost a sly smile creeping on these elephants’ faces. The Elephant Whisperers isn’t here to just show us cute baby animals, but it details the sacrifice and dedication it takes to give yourself over to another living being. Gonsalves doesn’t shy away from some pain towards the end, but I dare you not to fall in love with this story.
The Elephant Whisperers is streaming now on Netflix.
The Flagmakers
We see American flags waving in the wind every day, but we probably never think about whose hands actually crafted them. In Sharon Liese and Cynthia Wade’s The Flagmakers, we ask ourselves how the symbol of the flag has changed as America goes through tumultuous times and who is the flag for?
Eder Flag, based in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, is the largest manufacturer of American flags in the country, and The Flagmakers focuses on the immigrants and Wisconsin natives who proudly sew and stitch the flags we see every day. Radica, the sewing manager, carries a warm presence as she looks over her employees. Barb is a conservative who loves her job and is anxious about her impending retirement. SugarRay, as a Black man, does not want to raise a flag in a country that turns a blind eyes to violence against other African Americans.
The Flagmakers shows how we can live with those who are different with our shared love of liberty and country. When these people are assembling a large flag near the top of the film, the huge room is nearly silent. It’s as if they are waiting for something beautiful and important to be born.
The Flagmakers is streaming now on Disney+.
Happiness is £4 Million
“You are not considered rich if you don’t live in a penthouse,” says Ou Chengxiao, China’s biggest real estate developer, at the start of of Happiness is £4 Million. Surely, everyone will have a reaction to that statement when they hear it…
The developer and an aspiring journalist, Cici, do not see eye to eye as she profiles him for a magazine. She is younger than he is, and he often sounds like he is offering her unsolicited advice. He also doesn’t want to get too close to her or open up too much. When she asks him why he thinks he shows so much love to his children but not the rest of his family, he quietly shuts down that line of questioning. But then she sees a twinkle of inspiration in other moments like when they visit his childhood home (a one-room apartment) against his indifference of visiting his former school.
Happiness seems to be about the generational gap between these people, but it also represents our obsession with money. Ou Chengxiao seems hungry to accumulate as much money as possible, but Cici doesn’t want to get sucked into that headspace. In a key moment, she realizes that he is just a person, but she is cautious to be around him.
Happiness is £4 Million is available to stream on PBS.
Haulout
There is an almost primal anticipation watching Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev’s must-see film, Haulout. Their film is details how walruses are being affected by climate change in the Siberian Arctic, but it avoids being preachy or condescending. I won’t be able to forget a lot of these images.
When we first see Maxim Chakilev alone in a freezing shack, we don’t know what he’s waiting for. In the first scene, he stands on a cliff’s edge, looks through binoculars, and makes a note for himself: “Can’t see them yet.” A few mornings later, he hears grunting and scratching outside his door, and he find thousands upon thousands of walruses piled on top of each other. Because there is no longer any ice, the animals come up on shore and Chakilev monitors their health and activities. There is an absolutely stunning overhead shot that shows how many walruses have climbed up onto the shore.
Haulout makes you feel helpless. You automatically worry about the survival of these animals and fear their future.
Haulout is available to stream via The New Yorker’s Screening Room.
Holding Moses
For those of us who do not have children, parenting looks like the hardest job in the world. Everyone has an opinion about “the right thing to do” and, it seems, that every decision can come with judgement from outside eyes. Rivkah Beth Medow and Jen Rainin’s film, Holding Moses, is about one mother’s disappoint, pain, and acceptance of her disabled son.
Randi Rader always wanted to have children–it felt natural to her. She conceived her son, Moses, with the help of a turkey baster, but he was born with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome, a condition that causes development delays and hinders his ability to walk and talk. This condition was a severe blow to Rader, and she details, in enormous candor, how she had to come to terms with the child that she gave birth to.
There are people who might be shocked at Rader’s honesty. We are often taught that mothers need to only be caregivers and to put our child’s needs before our own. Rader, a dancer with STOMP, feels things with her entire body–the filmmakers show archival footage of her on stage as well as show her making those physical connections with herself in outdoor spaces. This is a deeply personal experience and Rader doesn’t hold back, but the filmmakers never suggest that this is anything but singular experience. It’s raw and emotion.
Holding Moses is available to stream via The New Yorker’s Screening Room.
How Do You Measure a Year?
Jay Rosenblatt is a filmmaker who cares about human emotion and its progression. Last year, he was nominated in this category for When We Were Bullies, a film about seeking forgiveness many years later. How Do You Measure a Year? is even more personal as he asks his daughter the same question every year on her birthday.
When Rosenblatt begins this questioning, you can tell that Ella doesn’t fully understand, but, as she gets older, she recognizes this yearly time capsule becoming more and more storied. He asks her what she is afraid of and what she thinks power is, and we begin to wonder what Rosenblatt himself is expecting. What is he hoping to hear as he asks her these questions?
Time is precious, they say, but having something to beautifully simple is worth its weight in gold. As Ella grows up, we see admiration and love, and we quite literally witness the complex relationship between father and parent growing between them.
The Martha Mitchell Effect
“I do say what I please,” says Martha Mitchell with a laugh in the Netflix doc, The Martha Mitchell Effect. That laugh is viewed as a punctuation and a weapon throughout Anne Alvergue’s short film. With the benefit of time, the archival footage shows how Mitchell transformed from a dissenting voice of the Nixon administration to a pawn during the Watergate Scandal.
I love Mitchell’s face, and a lot of it is captured as if we just caught her saying something scandalous. Her mouth is often agape in pictures as if she is yelling or guffawing. After so many years of people calling out for Donald Trump to resign or be removed from office, we are reminded at how vocal Mitchell was when she found herself disappointed in Nixon’s performance as Commander-in-Chief. We see it all start when Mitchell was friendly to the press during a time that the administration wasn’t as kind to them.
Alvergue has worked on films like Love, Gilda and Omara as an editor, so she knows how to cut together a film to not just highlight someone’s work but their resilience. Martha Mitchell was one of a kind, and pivoting towards her new act in life (after her divorce) was satisfying to watch. Be more like Martha! Don’t be quiet, people!
The Martha Mitchell Effect is streaming now on Netflix.
Nuisance Bear
Is it bad that I wanted the migrating polar bears to scare the curious tourists in Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden’s Nuisance Bear? This poor guy is just trying to get to where he needs to go, and prying eyes are trying to find the best Instagram filter for their story.
In Churchill, Manitoba, tourists come far and wide to see polar bears migrating every year, and the town experiences a huge spike in tourism. At the same time wildlife management program is in place to deal with “nuisance bears” since these animals and humans have to live in the same space with one another. The opening shot is absolutely gorgeous–a majestic bear slowly walks through some brush before realizing that he has an audience. People are standing outside running vehicles, their phones and cameras aloft, as this bear crosses the street. You can feel the threat of the cold air and hear the crunching of the snow. Vanden and Weisman capture this creature in a respectful manner.
There are tense moments in the second half of this short, 13-minute film. I don’t trust anyone chasing after these bears in a pickup truck, and the moments make for some heart-pounding moments. Just get out of the bears’ way!
Nuisance Bear is streaming via The New Yorker’s Screening Room.
Shut Up and Paint
I cannot stop thinking about Titus Kaphar’s work seen throughout Shut Up and Paint, an incendiary look at one artist’s struggle to maintain a distinct sense of self as he navigates the art world. When you are finished with a piece of art, how hard is it to give up that ownership to the world?
There is a moment where Kaphar (who co-directed Shut Up with Alex Mallis) where Kaphar sits in front of an empty canvas, and the tension is palpable. In some of his work Kaphar has painted an image, but then an outline of another person is cut out of the painting altogether. We feel loss and pain, and we wonder why they are no longer there. Each painting has a different meaning and intention.
Kaphar tells a colleague, “Ninety percent of what I sell doesn’t go into Black or brown homes,” and images of stuffy art galleries with white buyers flood our mind. Even if we have never been to an art opening, we know that world, and Shut Up and Paint sheds a light on Kaphar’s feelings after a piece is finished.
Shut Up and Paint is about the survival of an artist and how he pivots to keep that pulse racing. I could seriously watch a feature or series with Kaphar at the center.
Shut Up and Paint is available to stream via PBS.
Stranger at the Gate
A former U.S. Marine almost committed a heinous crime, but Joshua Seftel’s Stranger at the Gate is about healing as much as it is about accountability. As we hear about attacks on people of color in America on a daily basis, it’s shocking to speak people speaking so candidly about hatred in this film.
Mac McKinney had a lot of hatred in his heart after he served his country for nearly two decades. He viewed any Muslim person as an enemy without giving them their own space or the respect that they deserved. McKinney returned to the United States in 2006, and he planned on detonating a bomb at an Indiana mosque. To hear McKinney casually speak of the people he wants to see die is absolutely startling, and it makes you want to get up from the screen. You don’t want to be around that kind of hatred.
The transparency in McKinney is balanced by the presence of Bibi and Saber Bahrami, the owners of the mosque who welcomed McKinney with open arms. To see where McKinney started his journey to how he is part of the mosque is quite inspiring to see. Seftel doesn’t brush off his hands and assue that McKinney has been reformed. There is conflict and pain in McKinney’s face and eyes, and Seftel captures that without sentimentality.
Stranger at the Gate is streaming via The New Yorker’s Screening Room.
38 at the Garden
I still remember Linsanity from over ten years ago. I can’t be the only one…
“If you are an Asian American person, you’ve spent your entire life identifying with people who looking nothing like you. Now I can see someone who looks like me? I didn’t know it could be that easy,” Jeremy Lin says early on in Frank Chi’s 38 at the Garden, an inspiring and essential look at how Lin took the NBA by storm in the early 2010s. Chi includes testimonials from Lisa Ling, Hasan Minhaj, and Jenny Yang about what Lin’s presence in the media meant to them, but it also dives into how little Asian Americans have in sports, media, and entertainment.
Even re-watching clips of Lin sprinting across the court, you can tell you are watching something special happening. When he leaps to dunk a basket, you can almost see wings on his feet. Plain and simple, 38 at the Garden is aspirational and necessary viewing.
38 at the Garden is streaming on HBO Max.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSU2j8FJi_M
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Which shorts do you think the Academy will go for? Which ones are you looking forward to checking out if they make the cut?
Usually if a voter watches all of the doc shorts, I feel like a lighter film stands out all the more like Walk Run Cha-Cha or last year’s winner, The Queen of Basketball. I am thinking that 38 at the Garden and How Do You Measure a Year? make it. Jay Rosenblatt was a nominee in this category last year. Typically, Netflix does well with this category, and they have two films shortlisted this year: The Elephant Whisperers and The Martha Mitchell Effect. The streamer has landed a nomination in this category since 2017 when it won for The White Helmets (Extremis was also nominated that year). Which one would you think gets in?
My gut says…
The Elephant Whisperers
The Flagmakers
How Do You Measure a Year?
Strange at the Gate
38 at the Garden
Watch out for…
Anastasia
As Far As They Can Run
Haulout
