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A Survey of Short Docs: Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Durham, North Carolina
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This is the first part of a review that was originally printed in DOX Magazine, Issue 66, September 2006.
Short documentaries seem to come in three categories. First, there are the little “bits,” the three to ten minute pieces that tell a quick story. Experimental or straight-forward, they are a brief introduction to a person or place. Second are “content” shorts that run between twenty and forty minutes. Their purpose is to convey an idea or issue in a content-driven and straight-forward manner, laying out the information in a well-crafted way. Lastly, there the twenty to thirty minute shorts that seek to tell a story in a far more artistic manner. These tales are often less on the surface and evocative of deeper questions.
None of these categories are isolated, however, and as filmmaking evolves, more cross-breeding happens. This is the first of a 3 part series look at short work at documentary festivals in 2006.
Out of the 72 films in general competition at Full Frame, 18 were short films. In past years, Full Frame has had a dedicated shorts program but this year all the shorts were programmed with the feature films. Perhaps because of that, only five films ran twenty minutes or longer but to me they were the strongest works.
The Wash (USA, Lee Lynch and Lee Anne Schmitt) is a beautiful and pensive look at development around a California river wash. Schmitt lends much of the voice track, meditating on how she used to play there when she was young, and the Super 8 cinematography, which evokes the past, makes you feel like you’re there with her. The film chronicles the changes as never-ending development in the United States encroaches on the open spaces that are so often full of childhood memories.
Send Me Somewhere Special, a UK film sponsored by the BBC, is another example of a film that transcends the details and muses on larger questions. Filmmaker Darren Herscher, desiring an “experience,” asks a man on the street to give him a place to go. The man chooses the village where his father lived. Herscher journeys there and explores the village by asking people questions about their personal lives. Hersher asks a man he’s just met, “Are you happy?” In a moment of pure intimacy and trust, the man says, simply, “No.” What’s striking is how up front these people are in talking about their feelings. Does the camera prompt that intimacy? Or is it the fact that Herscher’s a stranger? There’s no context for who most of these people are, how he’s met them, or what their lives are, yet the rawness and simplicity of the personal dialogues make the film work.
Peter Jordan’s Stand Like Still Living (USA) is an example of the cross-breeding of short doc styles. In theory, this is an advocacy film – the story of two people in Botswana affected by HIV. In fact, it is being used in Botswana to raise awareness of the dangers of HIV/AIDS. Yet Stand Like Still Living is unlike most advocacy films. The imagery is hauntingly beautiful. Jordan’s eye and patience allows him to film the quiet moments, the ones that contain far more than action. Some segments are shaky, but we find out later that the two main subjects used the cameras themselves to record intimate moments. This makes the film feel even more real. The result is a beautiful, slow and understanding film about the worrisome space between life and death.
The Jury Award for Short Film went to No Umbrella: Election Day in the City (USA), Laura Paglin’s subtly biting look at one American district’s difficulties on Election Day 2004. City leader Fannie Lewis struggles to manage an overwhelming voter turnout with a lack of voting machines and support. The cinema verite style allows the audience to feel the mounting frustration as her requests go undelivered and the voters wait on endlessly long lines. The only drawback is that the 26 minute piece seems to be lifted out of another film - there’s hardly any context or set-up at the beginning and then it’s over without any real ending.
The final two lengthier shorts were both products of the UK. In The Angelmakers Astrid Bussink captures the quirky and unusual story of mass arsenic poisons in a Hungarian village in 1929. Eve Weber won the Student Award for her film The Intimacy of Strangers, an expertly shot and edited musing on cell-phone conversations in the public ear.
One very short film also stood out – Erin Hudson’s Afloat (USA). It is an ethereal look at water aerobics and the four elderly people who speak about life with much insight. The camera work is beautiful and it transports you to this elegant world for a few moments.
While the festival had a wide variety of short films, one thing is clear. No matter what “category” a short falls into, if it is well-crafted and creative, it will remain in your mind long after watching it.
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