One of the treats of big city living is the opportunity to check out films that don't make the rounds at the mall megaplex. You can only see Paul Bart so many times... The Oscar shorts are a handful of films live-action, documentary, and animated under forty minutes gathered from all over the world. Only Academy members who have attended special shorts screenings get to cast their vote. Too bad democracy doesn't work like that. What is so fascinating about these films is they really are the only "Films" with a capital F in statue contention. They are non-linear (sometimes), culturally-specific, non-commercial, driven by technique sans star wattage, big budgets or major studio backing. Until Itunes movie rental, you couldn't see them at home legally. So why make them? They offer the directors and creative teams to really showcase their craft. I don't think you could get a better demo reel.
This year I caught the live-action and animated shorts at the IFC in the West Village. The live action contenders came to us from Ireland, Germany, France, and Denmark. Topics ranging from genocide in two cases, gang violence in two cases, a bicycle crash, and a funny-looking painting of a pig. Death is a very popular plotline in the live action short as it quickly establishes (or hopes to) an emotional connection to the proceedings. How else to convey a communal sense of loss with characters you met two minutes ago? Show them losing a loved one. Or re-visit a harrowing historical period (holocaust, African civil unrest) for which the audience has an educated pre-text. While none of the films were without flaws, I think I enjoyed The New Boy (Ireland) and Manon on the Asphalt (France) the best, though according to predictions at Entertainment Weekly, neither stand a chance against the token holocaust film. The New Boy focused on the new kid in an Irish classroom who is immediately targeted by the class bullies. Meanwhile he remembers his school life before, with his father as a teacher in a one-room African school house. Manon on the Asphalt finds the title character in a bike crash imagining her closest friends' reactions to her death. What I liked about both these films was the opportunity to explore or to be given access to characters' thoughts in a magical way a la The Lovely Bones. Both heightened the everyday with almost supernatural fantastical elements. In this way, regardless of the cultural milieu the films came out of, they achieve a universality that allows audiences from all backgrounds to feel for the characters.
The animated films were, in a word, bizarre. While the American entries all seemed to follow the same plotline -- under-appreciated animal wants food, goes to absurd lengths to get it, the foreign nominees were a bit more existential. We had dancing corpses, a man who lives 91 cm from himself, domestic strife between a polar bear and a penguin, and some French flick that I think I nodded off during (does not bode well for a 19 minute film). Note -- not all these films were nominated though they are part of the screening. Pixar's Presto (rabbit wants a carrot) only run for its money would be the French 2-minute Oktopi. Two octopi fight for their lives on a Greek Isle. Clever animation and very engaging. It also marks the third movie this year that has made me want to relocate to Greece (the first two: Mamma Mia and Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-- in my defense, on a plane). Although not entirely. Because I bet Greece doesn't get the Oscar shorts. Or more importantly, Greece doesn't have David Chang's Momofuku Milk Bar in the East Village. Salivate over this list: http://www.momofuku.com/bakery/bakery%20menu.asp
Bring your spoon to this festival of wonderful menu items. Snickerdoodle soft serve topped with pistachio...or how about a slice of blue cheese polenta or crack pie. Sure they'll be gone in a moment, but it was good while it lasted.
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