The 92nd Academy Awards- The Oscars- Best Documentary Short
With the number of categories that are a part of The Oscars, it is no surprise that we have the titular category. It is different from the other category for Best Documentary, because this one only covers short subjects, while the other category is for feature length films. We’ve already gone through nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, and, as mentioned, Best Documentary Feature. We will now be going over the nominees for the Best Documentary Short award.
First up on the list of nominees is the short documentary In the Absence. Directed by Seung-jun Yi, the movie shows us that justice must be found even years later. When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.
The next Documentary Short nominee is for a film called Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). The director, Carol Dysinger, shows us how young girls in Kabul deal with their surroundings. It is the story of young afghan girls learning to read, write, and skateboard, in Kabul. Skateboarding gives them courage and life skills that help them thrive and adapt to the challenges that lie ahead.
Following that documentary short we have Life Overtakes Me. From directors Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas comes a short documentary exploring the effects the threat of deportation can have on refugee children. Hundreds of refugee children in Sweden who have fled with their families from extreme trauma in their home countries have become afflicted with Resignation Syndrome. Facing deportation, they withdraw from the world into a coma-like state, as if frozen, for months or even years.
The next documentary short is one called St. Louis Superman. Directed by Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan, St. Louis Superman follows black rapper and activist Bruce Franks, who was inspired to run for office by the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014. Bruce Franks Jr. was elected to the overwhelmingly white and Republican Missouri House of Representatives, must overcome both personal trauma and political obstacles to pass a bill critical to his community.
The final documentary short on the list of nominees is Walk Run Cha-Cha. This short documentary, directed by Laura Nix, shows Chipaul and Millie Cao reunited in 1980s Los Angeles after being separated by the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they become ballroom dancers to reconnect again and make up for lost time.
