Oscar Nominated Documentary Shorts

Sun Come Up – On the surface, this is about Carteret Islanders, who are trying to find land on nearby Bougainville because their island is “sinking.” Underneath, there’s an obvious (and occasionally explicit) link to global warming, their islands going away because of the rising ocean. But, there is also a distinct human element. Bougainville had a civil war in recent history, what locals call the “crisis.” This crisis makes it that much more difficult for the Carteret to find locals willing to effectively give land away—the Carteret are a culture mostly untouched by modern capitalism and modern agriculture. Bougainvilleans in the film characterize them more than once as lazy, and question whether or not they can really manage to work the land as they will have to on Bougainville. I was drawn into the story, the plight of these Carteret Islanders and felt sorry for them at some of their meetings with locals in various Bougainville villages, but I’m not sure the balance between the literal tale, the connection to global warming and even the potential culture clash balance very well, and in the end, this doesn’t seem like a winner in this category. Still, the subject is ripe for more investigation, which is always a plus in any documentary. If I want to know more when the credits role, then clearly my interest at least has been piqued.

The Warriors of Qiugang – Last year, I thought the best of the documentary shorts was Tears of Sichuan Province, another story about China’s transition into the First World, another conflict between locals and local officials that leaves locals wanting. But, while the subject here--locals fighting against factories poisoning their air and water—is interesting, like Sun Come Up, in the ends, the documentary is lacking something. While there is some success for the people in the film, the denouement is less than one might want. Of course, this is a documentary, so it cannot always be wrapped up in a nice package, with a clear ending and clear winners and loser; in fact, that is often the key to many a documentary. The recent The Cove arguably hadn’t solved much of the problem of dolphins being slaughtered for food, but it drew a large enough picture of what was involved that in context of the documentary itself it didn’t matter so much. Perhaps this subject deserves more room—there are other documentaries on the same subject out there… I think it’s not too recent but I recently watched Maquiladores, which touched on factory pollution, just for one example.

Strangers No More – Arguably the most pleasant of the nominated documentary shorts this year, Strangers No More gives us a school in Tel Aviv where refugees of many different nationalities and cultures come together to learn, some of them being in school for the first time. They learn a common language—Hebrew—to communicate with one another and with their teachers and to learn, and while the film hints at some very depressing pasts for various characters (one student from Darfur saw his grandmother and father killed with machete and has no idea if the rest of his family is even alive) but mostly deals with the hope of these kids’ new surroundings, the possibilities opening to children who were barred from modern opportunities like college in their previous environments, wartorn nations and the like. Entertainment Weekly called this one as the likely upset for the award.

Killing in the Name – Entertainment Weekly’s pick for winner is about Ashraf, whose wedding was bombed in 2005 by an Islamic extremist. He sets out to sit down with the father of a suicide bomber and to present the story of victims’ wives to young men who may become the next generation of bomber. The film also includes commentary from a recruiter for such bombers. There is definitely a great subject here, and a good, personal approach that makes it very compelling, but it actually seems like too big a subject for 40 minutes. I think the film fails to accomplish what it sets out to do by limiting itself in length and in scope.

Poster Girl – On the other hand, this film, about a young woman with post-traumatic stress disorder, tells such a singular, personal story that is almost designed for such a short piece. It probably didn’t hurt that I’ve been dealing with the subject of PTSD a lot this year (as that was this year’s LD debate topic, or at least one obvious iteration thereof, anyway), but the primary focus here—Sergeant Robynn Murray—is a very personable young woman, and it is very easy to fall prey to the same swings in emotion that she does on screen, to feel anger when she feels angry, to be happy in the end when she finds comfort finally in Combat Paper art. Ashraf, in Killing in the Name, seems to emotionally detached from his quest; perhaps, if that documentary were given more room to breathe, we might witness more of his dealing with his own personal tragedy instead of looking into a very volatile subject with a bit too much detachment. Here, in Poster Girl, though, just as in, say The Pat Tillman Story (which made the shortlist but did not get a nomination for Documentary Feature), the story is personal, and there is real emotion on the screen, whereas Killing in the Name seems to simply be catching a “war on terror” wave without really delving even into its own angle on the subject, let alone really pulling us into the larger issues at hand. Poster Girl definitely falls heavily into the antiwar camp, so it isn’t a film for everyone, but it is probably the best photographed of the group here (Strangers No More being another well photographed piece), is definitely the best edited, and in my opinion, is the one that captures a large issue in is small time without seeming to either need more time or more cutting. I’m not sure if it will win, but I think it should.