ShortsTV continues to make all three of the Oscar-nominated short film programs (animated, live action, documentary) available to audiences around the world. To find out where you can watch this year’s Oscar© Nominated Short Films, visit their Theatrical Release and On Demand pages.
Documentary
The documentary short category often relies on certain trends. The Holocaust has historically been a popular subject in this category. Surprisingly, 2019 doesn’t contain a single entry having to do with that theme (neither did 2018 actually). In fact, the last winning doc to do so was The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life in 2014.
That’s not to say they still can’t be classified. 3 of this year’s finalists [End Game, Lifeboat, and Period. End of Sentence] touch upon humanitarian groups dealing with imperative issues. The other two concern hate groups.
I’ve ranked each one in order from best to worst. In some cases I could have flipped entries next to each other, so don’t get too hung up on the lineup.
END GAME
USA/40MINS/2018
Directors: ROB EPSTEIN and JEFFREY FRIEDMAN
Moving depiction of the final stages of life at two San Francisco Bay Area medical facilities: a hospice and a palliative care center. Both places comfort and provide for people dealing with end of life decisions. A handful of patients are profiled. It’s a poignant examination that forces the audience to deliberate over very difficult choices that we will ultimately have to make some day. One key doctor B.J. Miller, M.D., is head of the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco. He knows a thing or two about tragedy having lost 3 of his own limbs in a freak accident.
BLACK SHEEP
UK/27MINS/2018
Director: ED PERKINS
Looking directly into the camera, Cornelius Walker recounts his childhood as a black teenager growing up in the largely white London suburb of Essex. Blending his own firsthand account with reenactments, he describes his dealings with the local neighborhood of racist peers. Rather than combat them, he details his desire to fit in with the reprehensible group. He becomes like them and his transformation, both physical and mental, is chilling. The extreme lengths he employed to earn their friendship is unsettling. Points for honesty though and sympathy for the obviously difficult environment to which he was exposed.
Hard to predict which of these five nominees will ultimately win, but most buzz surrounds this one.
LIFEBOAT
USA/34MINS/2018
Director: SKYE FITZGERALD
Volunteers from a German nonprofit called Sea-Watch conduct rescue missions in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya. Many of these North African refugees are fleeing to Europe to escape barbarous conditions at a human trafficking prison. It’s not entirely clear that their life, after being rescued, will be great. However, at least they are alive in a much better place than before. The superior cinematography and music are definitely at a higher level than the other submissions. The visual spectacle of these unsafe vessels overcrowded to the point that people are literally hanging off the sides, is something you won’t soon forget.
PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE.
USA/26MINS/2018
Director: RAYKA ZEHTABCHI
In a rural village outside Delhi, India, the discussion of feminine hygiene is so taboo that few have access to sanitary pads. Let’s face it, a documentary about this subject might even be off-putting to some in the U.S. Interviews suggest that the men in this remote area don’t have a clear understanding of the female reproductive system. Many women just use an old cloth and discreetly bury it afterward. We hear personal stories from ladies who have had difficulty pursuing an education or holding a job. A female-led startup seeks to change all that by producing and selling (it’s a business after all) affordable pads. A product that Western society takes for granted becomes a major life-changing commodity in the lives of these women.
A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN
USA/7MINS/2018
Director: MARSHALL CURRY
Archival film concerning a 1939 rally of Nazi supporters astonishingly held in New York City at Madison Square Garden. The gathering drew a crowd of 20,000 people in 1939; two years before America began its involvement in World War II. This frustratingly brief documentary presents jaw-dropping footage inspiring numerous questions. Much-needed narration would have been appreciated to provide some context. The throng is addressed by Fritz Kuhn the leader of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization. This isn’t revealed, but my own curiosity led me to discover that Kuhn was deported in 1945.
02-16-19
Fast Film Reviews 
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