Movie Review: 2019 Oscar Nominated Short Documentaries

I really do try and see the short films that are nominated for the Oscars every year – preferably before the ceremony – but it is often more difficult. The theatrical release isn’t very wide, the VOD release comes just a couple of days before the ceremony (and doesn’t seem to always hit Canada in time at all). This year, thankfully, the short documentaries are all available online to watch. Two of them (Period and End Game) are Netflix docs, another two are presented on YouTube by news organizations (The New Yorker to Lifeboat and The Guardian for Black Sheep) – and another is just on Vimeo for all to see – so if you have a Netflix subscription already, you can see all five without costing you a dime – and in just over 2 hours.

 

Below is a mini-review for all five nominated short documentaries – from my least favorite to my favorite. It is a pretty darn good lineup.

 

Lifeboat *** / *****

Directed by: Skye Fitzgerald.

 

Lifeboat is an undeniably powerful documentary about an important subject – the ongoing migrant crisis in Europe, where people from Africa are risking everything to make the perilous journey by boat to Europe for a better life. The film focuses on a German group who have made it their mission to rescue those migrants – the boats the make the journey are massively overcrowded and not safe – and it’s very common for people to die on the crossing. The documentary feels unfocused though – the first half is more confusing than anything, not making clear exactly what we are watching. The film finds its footing as it goes along – and grows more powerful. And yet, I could not help but think that the film feels like a superficial treatment of an important subject, told better in other films (like Fire at Sea) – and that all we’re really seeing here is a portrait of suffering, without proper context. The film still has value – we cannot turn away from the crisis – and yet I think it deserves deeper treatment than it gets here.

 

Period. End of Sentence *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Rayka Zehtabchi.

 

If you want a crowd pleaser in this category, this is the only choice. This Netflix documentary takes place in a small village outside of Delhi India – and is about a group of women who have a company that manufactures cheaper – but high quality – pads for women – because in India, less than 10% of women use them. The film is amusing at first, as documentarian Rayka Zehtabchi asks the people in the village what menstruation is – the men don’t seem to understand even the basics of it, younger women giggle, and look away awkwardly – something even some older women do. This is a taboo subject in India – and you can tell. The women involved want to eliminate that taboo – it is a natural bodily process after all, so it shouldn’t be shameful. The film is inspiring in the way it shows these smart, enterprising women manufacture and try and sell the pads. It also gets a little serious at times – talking about the cost of this taboo on the women of India. The film is crowd pleaser to be sure – fun and serious to boot. I do wish it was perhaps a touch deeper – the whole thing feels like a superficial gloss on the subject – an advertisement for its sponsored The Pad Project – an important organization to be sure, but an ad nonetheless.

 

End Game **** / *****

Directed by: Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman.

 

Oscar winners Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman’s End Game is a touching film about palliative care – the doctors, nurses and other health care workers who dedicate their careers to helping people in the final stages of their lives – not just with medical care, but about pretty much everything. The short documentary format is the right choice here – even at 40 minutes, the film can be tough to take as it is addressing a subject we all know we have to deal with someday, but no one wants to. The film’s approach is basically to sit back and observe – the patients, their families, the health care workers, etc. as they deal with the hardest decisions they will ever have to make. We see in the patients a variety of reactions – people who are defiant and think they can still beat their illness, those who are resigned to their fate, those who are scared, and a few who may accept it. In many ways, End Game is a very simple film, about a process that anyone who has ever watched a family member die has gone through, and that we will all go through ourselves. But it is that simplicity that makes it so effective.

 

Black Sheep **** / *****

Directed by: Ed Perkins.

 

The short documentary form is perfect for the story Black Sheep has to tell. In the aftermath of the killing of Damilola Taylor – a 10-year-old of Nigerian descent in London, England – a different Nigerian family living in the city decides to try and get away from the violence, and move to a smaller town. The effect it had on their son – Cornelius – is what is documented in Black Sheep. The entire movie is Cornelius’ story – talking about the hope he felt when he left, and how immediate the racist reaction to him and his presence was – involving him being beat up as soon as he arrives. He takes drastic measures to try and be “whiter” – colored contacts to change his eye color, even bleaching his skin to make him lighter. It works – to an extent – he finds a group of “friends” – who are as racist as ever, but somehow accept him (but only him). But being around that level of violence, and being that self-hating leads to violence in Cornelius as well. The film is striking shot – even with only one talking head interview, it still looks better than most docs of the same style, and the recreations scenes are stunning as well – more interested in the kind of immediate feeling of being in that situation than the details. Unlike some of the other films – that you feel are truncated versions of a full length doc (and thus, skimming the surface more than most) – Black Sheep finds the perfect length at 26 minutes for this story.

 

A Night at the Garden **** ½ / *****

Directed by: Marshall Curry.

 

Marshall Curry’s A Night at the Garden is only 7 minutes long, but that is the precise length it needs to be for it to get in, makes its points crystal clear, and get out again. The film is all archival footage of the rally at Madison Square Garden on February 20, 1939. WWII is about to officially break out, Europe is in chaos, and Hitler is putting his final solution into effect. It is on this night that 20,000 Americans gather at Madison Square Garden to hold, in effect, a Nazi Rally under the guise of being true patriots. Much of the footage is silent – with just James Baxter’s great, tension fueled score as it soundtrack, as we see the type of footage we are well acquainted with from German propaganda films of the time, but this time on American soil –with a giant portrait of George Washington in the background. Curry is smart enough that he knows he doesn’t have to do much to the footage other than show it, edited together brilliantly, and scored perfectly. It is disturbing and horrifying – and makes all the point he needs to make with no commentary attached. A brilliant film.