For the past few years I’ve watched all the Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts, officially because they’re timely and important films to watch. Unofficially it’s because they’re short, and I can knock out a whole category in an evening. This year, though, it might’ve been better to space them out: they’re well-made, intelligent, and often beautiful, but they are (with one exception) a little on the depressing side. If you’re feeling brave, keep reading for the reviews, along with links to where you can watch all of them.
End Game
I saw the name, the description, and the preview images of this one and I immediately thought “..oh, here we go.” Nothing like clicking the play button on a 40-minute documentary about aging, disease, end-of-life care, and death to make you think “…should I get more vodka now or in 40 minutes…”
A quote in an interview with the creators really sums up the point of the film for me, how it’s so important that “the people who are around you when you’re facing the end understand and respect your wishes. But that can only happen if there’s discussion about it.”
The movie looks at people who are either very close to death or possibly just realizing that the end is much, much closer than they thought. It features caregivers in a hospital and in a hospice, and how they work with people at the end of their lives, how they don’t treat them just as problems or patients or that generic word “the dying.” They talk to them like human beings, because even though they’ll be gone soon, they’re still here now, and that tiny amount of time left is as important to them as it is to the loved ones waiting with them.
It’s hard to recommend this one: it’s very well filmed and edited, but it’s not an easy watch. But that’s definitely the point: that these things are hard to see and hard to talk about it, but we’re all going to get there eventually so maybe we all have to find some way to wrap our heads around it, sooner than later.
I can’t shake the idea that this will be the Oscar-winner this year. I liked the final film in this review better, but this one seems to have a spark to it that I think will resonate best with the Academy voters.
End Game is available to watch on Netflix.
Black Sheep
Cornelius Walker’s mother was trying to protect him when she moved the family out of London: a kid the same age and skin color as him had been killed, and she wanted to get her son as far away from that threat as possible. The problem is, the small town they moved to was lousy with racists, and what Cornelius went through sounds almost worse than living with the possibility of getting murdered.
Cornelius himself tells the story, while a younger actor plays him in the flashback scenes. It’s beautifully told, and I mean both the words are beautiful and his accent is lovely. The quiet and careful tone is amazing when contrasted with the horrible things he’s saying, about what he did to himself to try and survive.
It’s only 27 minutes, and definitely worth a look. I think it has a good shot at the Oscar (I think End of Life has a slightly better shot, though) and it’s a really important film, especially for anyone who in their heart of hearts doesn’t understand why racism is all that bad. It’s very matter-of-fact, without feeling preachy.
Black Sheep is available to watch for free at shortoftheweek.com.
Lifeboat
The closer you get to the problem like a car crash or something, then it’s not just a mass of people, then they’re separating into individuals, they’ve actually got different expressions on their faces.
Then you have to start dealing with them as people, then your heart starts operating more than your head, and your heart tells the truth when we listen to it.
With the refugee crisis being in so many people’s minds, both the “invasion” (*eye roll*) at the US border and refugees all over Europe, I hope more people watch this film. There is a deliberate effort to dehumanize refugees, because if we think of them as human beings then we have to care and that’s a lot more work than shoving them somewhere else and saying it’s someone else’s problem, someone else’s fault.
This film shows their faces, and they get to tell their stories. Because another thing that the current administration likes to do is say “why would they take children on a dangerous trip like this, what were they thinking?” What they’re thinking is that the possibility of being drowned at sea, of giving up their dignity and throwing themselves at the mercy of strangers is much, much better than what they left behind.
The main character, though, isn’t a refugee. It’s the man who takes his boat out to try and save these refugees from drowning. It’s literally a thankless job (I’m sure a lot of people tell him to let them drown) and it’s hard, and endless, and probably feels futile. But he does it anyway, because not helping, not trying to make a difference, no matter how small or futile, would be worse.
I also like that he has empathy and imagination, which I think is what a lot of people lack when they dehumanize refugees. He can imagine how easily we could be in the same boat. No one ever seems to want to admit that we’re not immune.
I’m sure one more turn of the historical cycle, then our countries will be the very poor countries, and we’ll be the hordes of unemployed people, not wanted, not cared about, the riff raft.
We could be those people.
In the end we have to remember that those are our fellows.
I don’t think this one has as strong a shot at the Oscars, though it’s certainly an important subject that more people should be talking about. I’d love for it to win but I think Black Sheep and End Game have a more cinematic quality that voters will go for.
Lifeboat is available to watch for free at shortoftheweek.com.
A Night at the Garden
In 1939, 20,000 Americans rallied in New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate the rise of Nazism – an event largely forgotten from American history. A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN, made entirely from archival footage filmed that night, transports audiences to this chilling gathering and shines a light on the power of demagoguery and anti-Semitism in the United States.
There’s no narration in this film, it’s just the restored footage from a Nazi celebration in the United States, weeks before we entered World War II. You can draw your own conclusions after watching it. (It’s not even ten minutes long, and free to watch.)
I think it’s amazing that this footage has been restored and put together, and it’s a much-needed reminder that we aren’t as far away from being those people as we’d like. I don’t think it’ll get the Oscar, only because the shortness of it and the lack of narration will puzzle a lot of people, but maybe I’m being cynical.
A Night At the Garden is available to watch for free at anightatthegarden.com.
Period. End of Sentence.
This was the exception to the rule of “depressing documentaries get nominated for Oscars,” so that’s why it was my favorite. It’s joyous and funny and uplifting.
The women in a village in India get access to a machine that can manufacture feminine hygiene products…oh my God PADS, they make PADS. I really don’t want to have to tiptoe around the word here, the machine can quickly and inexpensively make a substitute for the discarded clothing and rags that these women often use when they get their period so they don’t BLEED ALL OVER THE PLACE.
Cynicism aside, the movie is very tasteful about it, you’re not going to see a single gross or upsetting thing.
There’s still a stigma against menstruation in a lot of India. Women often can’t go to religious services during their period because they’re unclean, and pads are often unavailable, too expensive, or too embarrassing to buy because God forbid you should admit you have a bodily function.
The machine that’s installed can make simple pads from locally available products, and, lest you think this is a “women rule men suck” post, it’s a man who created it and installed it and taught the women in this village how to use it.
If this was a “based on true events” Hollywood feature film, you’d have that moment where the men in the village get offended at everything and tear the machine down so our plucky heroines can have something to rise up against. (SPOILERS) Nope. Everybody does very well, nobody even makes fun of them, and there’s a lot of hope for the future.
It’s wonderfully filmed, and very fun. And it took me a lot longer than it should have to realize that, towards the end of the film, the girls laughing and talking about what they want to do when they grow up, the scenes of them farming in the fields and riding plow animals and making their own little long-jump area…it was meant to be like one of those tampon commercials. Where the women are all doing things and smiling and laughing.
People love to joke about them, but that’s kind of the brilliant thing about those cheesy commercials: if you’re not so caught up with worrying about making a mess, with this completely natural, biological thing that will happen to women ten to thirteen times a year for thirty years if they’re actually lucky enough to live that long and stay healthy, well, you can do a lot more things, and enjoy them.
I would love for this one to win the Oscar. I tend to think that compared to racism and death, voters might not think access to feminine hy….PADS, is important enough to justify an Oscar. But the Oscar doesn’t always go to the most depressing documentary, or the most timely, or dramatic, it (ideally) goes to the best-made one, so it still has a shot. It’s a tough choice this year, as it is most years.
Period. End of Sentence is available to watch on Netflix.
EDITED TO ADD – I’m so glad to be wrong: Period. End of Sentence. wins for Best Documentary Short!