2016 Oscar Documentary Shorts

My PIck: Last Day of Freedom

Oscar Winner: A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

2/8/2016 - Last Day Of Freedom (2015 documentary short) - 8/10 - The emotional resonance of this film shook me. Inventive in its storytelling device (using rotoscoping to present the story in whole, easily jumping in time and giving it all a larger ethereal feel) and impressive in its tone/scope. Perhaps a bit preachy and too inclusive in topics, I thought this was a tremendous work that brought a choke to my throat.

2/8/2016 - Claude Lenzmann: Spectre of Shoah (2015 documentary short) - 8-/10 - Really strong and classically made doc that explains a bit about the man and his hardships creating an all-time classic film. Terrific content with a recognizable and well executed style. Not pulling up trees with inventiveness, it does what it does with top notch acumen. Interesting and refined.

2/8/2016 - A Girl In The River: The Price Of Forgiveness (2015 documentary short) - 7+/10 - Piercing and confusing. I don't know the last time I, or the rest of the audience judging by their skoffs and verbalizations, felt such a cultural dissonance. About an attempted honor killing in Pakistan and what happens after, it was extremely well shot and quite affecting. Being a short film, it is too concise and surface level, but it was quite good.

2/8/2016 - Chau, Beyond the Lines - 7/10 - The tale of a Vietnamese boy trying to overcome his Agent Orange deformities to accomplish his dream. Long lasting in scope, it accounts his travails well. It lacks in depth of his and his fellow affected's plight, highlighting mostly only his artistic journey. But it is a short film, so, I get it.
Hard to watch and saddening, but hopeful and optimistic. Fine feature.

2/8/2016 - Body Team 12 (2015 documentary short) - 6-/10 - An effective and important mini story about Ebola victim corpse collectors. Perhaps relying too much on the source material and its innate affectations of this horrible situation rather than developing a complete and full story. It is a nice bit of film, but lacks as a complete product.