I apologize ahead of time for not being able to review all of the films. In a perfect world I would have infinite time to watch and review ALL of the Oscar nominated short films, but alas, I am a student and have to budget my time accordingly.
Luckily, I had the pleasure of viewing “Program B” of the Nominated Documentary Short Films. These included: Our Curse, a heartwrencher about a young couple caring for their newborn son who has a rare disease; The Reaper, following the life of a slaughterhouse executioner and the kind of emotional turmoil it entails; and White Earth, detailing life in the oil fields of North Dakota.
While watching these films, I had to smile–each of them is infinitely better than any given Transformers film. In a short time frame, each film I saw captured raw emotional power in almost every single shot. Many of the sequences were long and drawn out, but this wasn’t boring because they had power.
In The Reaper, we experience a long take of a bull as it is executed. With help from the voice over of the protagonist, we come to see the bull as a human and we share the fear it feels just before it is shot.
In White Earth, constant images of cycling oil wells remind us of life’s neverending march onwards, as well as humanity’s unquenchable thirst for oil.
Our Curse goes even further: we watch a newborn child, unable to breathe when he goes to sleep, struggle to live day by day with the aid of his parents. Each shot of the breathing apparatus and the haggard parents on the sofa remind us how lucky we are to be able to breathe without thinking about it.
Another wonderful motif throughout the evening was the lack of diegetic (onscreen) dialogue. Location sounds and ambient music dominated most of the films, punctuated by voice over narrative. This method is more common for documentary and art-house films, but it was also a good reminder of narrative film’s potential as well. Not all films need constant dialogue to tell a story.
I would recommend any and all of the films I saw in this short program. The link here has trailers for all of the films; hopefully the filmmakers that made them will go on to make more great films.
