2021 Oscar Documentary Shorts: Memories and Humanity Cry To Be Heard

This year’s Documentary shorts have reached into the depths of memory and humanity, calling for action while acknowledging the need for change. While so remember the past, others look to the future – to the change the past once promised.

A Love Song for Latasha (Sophia Nahli Allison)

One of the benefits of inclusionary narratives is that more than one side of a story is realized, all while a bigger picture is filled in. A Love Song for Latasha, from director Sophia Nahli Allison, is just this kind of documentary, revealing to viewers a deeper understanding behind the catalyst of the 1992 LA riots, but also a larger realized turn of events and the lasting effects it left behind.

A Love Song for Latasha is interlaced with home videos from the 1980s to 1990s and staged recording, bridging the gap between the past and the present – all while continually driving the relevance of Latasha’s story. Through the words of Latasha’s cousin and best friend, viewers come to know who Latasha was as a child – brave, strong, polite, and kind. She was the neighborhood big sister with ambitions of becoming a lawyer, not only to defend but to further use the opportunity to create programs within her community and reach the youth within the Black community who too often fall through the cracks.

After establishing who Latasha was, the documentary turns to reveal what happened to Latasha, and in doing so changes its form of delivery. Where much of the documentary had included brief inclusions of her cousin and best friend, home videos, and staged setting, A Love Song for Latasha embraces an animated form. And in doing so, it removes any distractions, any means for viewers to deflect Latasha’s story. We as viewers now rely on the auditory to understand what is happening. As viewers discover, Latasha was shot while attempting to purchase an orange juice for $1.79 – her murder the result of false accusations of theft by the store owner. As the documentary will continue to reveal, her death became one of the catalysts for the 1992 LA riots.

There is a deep heartbreak in hearing her story from those she has left behind, their lives affected by her death and the way of life they were forced into. Latasha has become the further understanding of the acceptance surrounding the ill presumed treatment of Black people, specifically Black children. Furthermore, the acceptance they are brought up to understand – that this is the way it is, and nothing will ever change. A Love Song for Latasha becomes the song of a people, one little girl representing a mass of individuals whose stories almost and, for many, met a fate similar to hers.

Do Not Split (Anders Hammer)

Do Not Split, from director Anders Hammer, sounds as terrifying and urgent as its title suggests. The short film follows the events of the anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill in Hong Kong, bringing ground footage from the eyes of protestors throughout the streets of Hong Kong and local universities. Its pulsating and intense music maintains the steady fight against power and the cry for justice and freedom, motivating not only the pace of the documentary but the urgency of its delivery.

Starting in September 2019, China announced their Extradition Law amendment Bill on Hong Kong, allowing criminals to be extradited to China where the country boasts a 99% conviction rate. And where the rights to a proper trial hang in the balance, the fear that more freedoms may just as easily be taken away looms.

As the crowds of protestors grow over the months encompassing the documentary, the brutality, and treatment of the citizens of Hong Kong worsens. Sieges are enacted on Universities, innocent bystanders are beaten and gassed and youths are arrested just for being young. Yet, in the face of it all, there is perseverance and a clear sense of what is desired. These protestors know they will be gassed, beaten, and bulleted, but they show up every day to make their voices heard.

With the arrival of the global pandemic, however, there is a feeling that not only was the world put on pause but the fight for civil liberties. As gatherings have been banned due to fear of infection and spread, stricter enforcements come into play, and those whose voices rang loudest have become silent. But even in the face of adversity and fear, there are still those willing to fight, willing to do what they can for the belief and desire for freedom.

Colette (Anthony Giacchino)

Some wars are never won, the memories of those the war has claimed and the ramifications of their deaths leaving an everlasting mark. How we deal with the aftermath is a unique experience, one that morphs and shapes as time passes. Sometimes we endure it alone, other times in the company of others. For Colette, her strength was her endurance. A French Resistance member from the very beginning of Germany’s occupation of France, Colette and her family each did their part, falsifying documents, gathering weapons, and pushing back. And while much of the family survived intact, her brother Jean-Pierre Catherine was captured and sent to a German Concentration camp, his final weeks forced to work on the V2 ballistic missiles for Germany.

Colette is now 90 and has clearly made a life for herself post-German occupation – but she has never forgotten her brother. Refusing up until this point to set foot on German soil, Colette has made the decision to visit and tour the concentration camp her brother worked and died in, forcing back memories she had long come to terms with and finally saying goodbye. Accompanied by Lucie Fouble, who is documenting deported French soldiers and specifically Jean-Pierre Catherine, Colette does not make the journey alone, in a sense finalizing a chapter in a very long life, and passing the burden of memory onto the next generation.

World War II stories are unrelenting – so many lives affected. Each new story, life served and lost, is as heart-wrenching as the last, and Colette takes its time navigating both Colette’s, Jean-Pierre Catherine, and Lucie’s stories. There is the sense of the past, present, and future culminating in one place, and a promise that those lost have not been, nor will they ever be, forgotten.

A Concerto Is A Conversation (Kris Bowers)

A Concerto Is A Conversation, from director Kris Bowers, is a sweet short about inspiration and family – as well as the perseverance and ingenuity families and countries are built on. While too often it feels scripted and staged, A Concerto Is A Conversation examines the relationship between Grandfather and Grandson, and how the decisions made by the first have impacted the latter.

Kris Bowers may not be a household name, yet, but he is certainly on his way. Composer for Green Book, Billie Holiday Vs. the United States, both Netflix’s Bridgerton and When They See Us, as well as the up-and-coming Space Jam: A New Legacy, Kris Bowers has already made an impact. But where his art form has found its way into film and TV, his beginnings go beyond him, perfectly encompassed by the definition of what a concerto is. As he describes in the beginning, a concerto is a conversation, composed of a solo and an assembly. It’s how you craft the conversation that makes the art. For Kris Bowers, he is the assembly, culminated and crafted, and here, in conversation with the soloist – his Grandfather.

At only thirteen minutes, A Concerto Is A Conversation captures Grandfather and Grandson regaling not only Kris’s rise but the actions of his Grandfather that made it all possible. Leaving the south, his Grandfather hitchhiked across the country, eventually ending in LA. With no money and no place to live, his grandfather turned to ingenuity, making calls claiming to be a hiring agency – and when the calls came in looking for work, he would send himself. His ingenuity extended beyond the agency he created, finding loopholes around enforced stereotypes and racial discrimination, rising himself and his family out of poverty. Through his decisions and ingenuity, a better life full of opportunities has bridged two generations.

Kris Bowers shares his grandfather, displaying gratitude and pure love, all while sharing his pure inspiration with the audience.

Hunger Ward (Skye Fitzgerald)

”It is not God who kills children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to dogs. It’s us. Only Us.” – Alan Moore, The Watchmen

Opening for the short film Hunger Ward, from director Skye Fitzgerald, the words of Alan Moore ring loud and clear for anyone who is listening, hanging over every moment of the short. In its opening moments, Hunger Ward points a finger at the audience and at the world. Plagued by war and famine, Yemen is left to fend for itself, humanitarian aid prevented from entering, resources scarce and bombings taking those that do not die of starvation. But while war and famine affect all of Yemen, innocence is left to suffer most.

Hunger Ward looks at the fight against the malnourishment of those who eventually find themselves at Sadaqa Hospital. Primarily, children, the ward does all it can to bring these children from the brink of death, utilizing medicine and science to treat, many times in a futile attempt to save and resurrect. As cries fill the hallways, the deaths of the many children of Yemen a heartbreaking testament to the devastation of war, doctors and nurses refuse to give up.

And while each situation may be different, the malnourishment stays the same – as does the perseverance of those determined to fight for each and everybody, mind and soul.

Hunger Ward is a tough short to take in, the audience rendered powerless yet tasked to become aware as much as the doctors and nurses in Yemen are tasked to act. There is eternal exhaustion in their eyes, yet an unrelenting fight to persevere. And while the camera lens forces viewers to witness the cruelty and inhumanity placed on the citizens of Yemen, especially the children, it also takes a stand, calling out the free countries of the world for with withholding aid and propagating the governments that would do this to their people.

Hunger Ward is not just an example of the power of documentary, but the urgent need for awareness and action.

Have you seen the 2020 Oscar-nominated Documentary Shorts? Who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments below!