Though Oscar night has passed, the nominees for Best Documentary Short well deserve their showcase at the Nevada Theatre Sunday, March 16, 7pm.
“The Lady in Number 6”: Malcolm Clarke spoke about Alice Herz-Sommer on Oscar night. “I was struck,” he said, “by her extraordinary capacity for joy and her amazing capacity for forgiveness.” He won the Academy Award. She is the title subject of his film with the subtitle “Music Saved My Life.” She was a concert pianist. Her attitude as well as her piano playing helped her survive a World War II Nazi concentration camp. Clarke told big time stars and a billion people watching the Awards ceremony that the oldest living holocaust survivor died a week before Oscar night, at age 110. It is more than precious film watching to experience “The Lady in Number 6” at age 109.
“Facing Fear”: Imagine two survivors. One was beaten nearly to death by a gang of supremacist punks who, essentially, were looking for something to do one night. The other is the reformed version of the man who led those vicious punks. Imagine them meeting, decades after the incident, both of them having become teachers of the gospel of tolerance. Imagine them becoming friends, where the victim can share with the victimizer that the beating was easier to forgive than being thrown out at age 13 by a mother who couldn’t tolerate her son being gay. Don’t just imagine it. See “Facing Fear.”
“Cave Digger”: Ra Paulette lives life on his own compulsive terms. Those terms make him a laborer and an artist at the same time. Those terms make him a person who digs caves. Essentially using only picks and shovels, he sculpts temples of underground architecture. Barely scraping out a living, he manages to find a few patrons. See the uniquely carved life of the “Cave Digger.”
“Karama Has No Walls”: The least impressive nominee in the Documentary Short category burns with coverage about the most incendiary region on earth. What is lacking in compelling film structure is propped by the makeshift nitty gritty of Middle East conflict. It communicates raw footage of people in the streets bleeding for freedom, in this case, people of Yemen being stomped down by their government. See inside the walls of “Karama Has No Walls.”
Note: the fifth nominee, “Prison Terminal,” a fine film is absent from the grouped release due to licensing limitations.