This year’s Sundance slate included short film programs, including focused tracks in animation, documentary and midnight-appropriate stories. The slate is filled with outstanding examples of the short film category, from around the world. The 57 shorts were selected from 11,153 submissions this year.
The Utah Review presents 12 that were standouts in a superlative lineup.
SHORT FILM ANIMATION PROGRAM
Winning the Short Film Jury Award: Animation was Natalia León’s Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado. An exceptional example of animation’s expressive capacity for sensitive, poignant characters and stories, the story revolves around Olivia who has returned to her Mexican hometown. Her childhood memories return in warm colors, including a woman who used to work in an ice cream shop in the neighborhood. Then suddenly, she went missing. It is an outstanding example of how animation gives emotional depth to an unresolved crisis in Mexico, where tens of thousands of women have disappeared and have been murdered. Meanwhile, only a small fraction of cases are ever resolved.
Another example of how impactful animation can be employed to deepen the contexts of social issues is Caries, created by Aline Höchli who lives and works in Switzerland. The film is an imaginative and subtle treatment of a hotly debated issue — the social impacts of dehumanization in immigration, in this instance. It invites the viewer to consider a perspective through a surprising yet effective way. In an email interview with The Utah Review, Höchli explained the creative context and process for the film, which is set inside the mouth of a egotistical television meteorologist. “I work associative and played with different elements that I felt were exciting: there was a phase in which gold teeth and submarines played a role,” she noted. “The figures were digging for wisdom in the wisdom tooth. Then again, the murals were a critical gallery of ancestors, which the shaman had to deal with. I often set myself a theme I find that is on my mind to embed this process: Belonging and peer pressure in this case.”
In the final draft, Höchli was drawn to the idea of “hidden interconnections, and “how much I was unconsciously preoccupied with them in my everyday life.” Going further, she explained her belief that “animation is an antidote to dehumanization.” The advantage of animation, according to Höchli, is that instead of relying on familiar images that trigger reflexive biases and stereotypes, the opportunity emerges to create unexpected images to engage the viewer’s curiosity “There is also the devastating phenomenon of dehumanization, in which one no longer perceives others as human beings because of fear and hatred,” Höchli added. “Animation, on the other hand, creates the illusion of vividness – we see plasticine or drawings, but it feels as if we are looking at something alive.”
In Caries, an artist is working on a masterpiece mural inside this vain man’s oral cavity, and it exemplifies Höchli’s rationale for why she feels comfortable in animation to channel her expressions. “[W]hen I animate, I can savor every detail of a movement because each individual frame passes through my hands. Animation can depict my inner world very well. I choose the stories themselves based on their relevance to me,” she explained. “However, the storytelling is not a particularly conscious act. I find this work incredibly exciting because it anticipates so much that occupies me unconsciously and that comes to the surface when I tell it.”
Another standout in the animation program is Inkwo for When the Starving Return, a magnificently rendered Indigenous narrative by Amanda Strong (Métis). The film is a pilot for a limited animated series, which will be developed by Spotted Fawn Productions in Vancouver. There is an epic feel in the storyline: Dove is a gender-shifting warrior who discovers the power of Inkwo (medicine) as a defense against voracious flesh-eating monsters, who must consume bodies and souls to sustain themaelves and grow even more potent. With their unique knowledge of Earth, Dove becomes formidable in defending themselves against these monsters. The film’s allegorical theme is acute in its timeliness, as the defense must be strengthened against greed and selfish consumption which threatens to rob us of our humanity and of our natural resources. Subsequent episodes will explore the world before and after the war, along with Doce leveraging the power of Inkwo to save the planet’s surviving people and animals.
A few notes about the outstanding quality of the animation are in order. The illustrations are adapted from Richard Van Camp’s (Tłı̨chǫ), collections of short stories and graphic novels Wheetago War, and the puppets came from Standing Figure and was supervised by Georgina Hayns who has collaborated with several Guillermo Del Toro’ film projects. Strong also is known for directing the series Molly of Denali, which premiered on PBS.
SHORT FILM DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM
Winning the Sundance Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing, Tiger, directed Loren Waters, is a beautifully emotional portrait of Dana Tiger, an internationally known Indigenous artist who persevered through a string of tragedies that cut short the thriving lives of various members of the family to sustain and build the Tiger T-shirt company. Waters, a Cherokee and Kiowa filmmaker, provides a superb testament to the resilience and healing powers of art, as seen through the experiences of Muscogee Creek artist and elder Dana Tiger.
The legacy is deep. Dana was just five years old when her father (Jerome Tiger) died and the surviving family members including her mother and uncle started a T-shirt printing enterprise some 40 years ago. However, family tragedies threatened to derail the business. Her uncle died suddenly and the business was on the verge of never being rejuvenated. In the hands of Dana and others in her family, they restored the momentum and the business has been good ever since. However, Dana is also suffering from Parkinson’s disease and has been focused on ensuring the legacy is sustained.
Two short documentaries — one from China and the other from Algeria — focus on young people and the unexpected and unprepared reactions to grief and difficult truths. Directed by Yuxuan Ethan Wu, Death Education, the difficulties of publicly acknowledging grief and discussing death among young people are chronicled in direct ways. Wu, who is in the same age demographic as the individuals featured in the film, opens up the voice of the film through the actual words of young people who participate in a. unique class about death education. As the lead up to the annual traditional observance of the tomb sweeping day in China, a teacher conducts the course which involves the students going to a funeral home to prepare for a ceremony to bury the ashes of those who died but were unidentified. “In my mind, this story opens the door to exploring many themes and questions. First, why are there unclaimed ashes? These remains were sent for cremation but left behind, some for over two decades, including those of children as young as two years old,” Wu wrote in a director’s statement. “Secondly, there’s the resistance from some parents who prevent their kids from participating in the ceremony. As one parent remarked, they weren’t afraid of the ashes themselves but feared they might bring bad luck, potentially affecting their child’s academic performance.”
What makes Death Education particularly impactful is Wu’s decision to parallel the teacher’s objective, which is to allow the students to express and embody the emotional grieving process. Throughout the film, the voiceover includes short passages from student diaries. Furthermore, the subject and the setting took on an even fresher direct meaning, as China, like many other countries in the world, had seen many die during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rich in abstract symbolism but yet making way for the inevitable realities of loss and absence, the documentary Deadlock, by Lucien Beucher and Mahdi Boucif, is set at the Algiers waterfront to the Mediterranean Sea. Two young Algerian men have had brothers who have taken one of two possible Mediterranean Sea pathways to reach Europe, in the hopes of migrating to a better livelihood. More than a half million Algerians seek to migrate to Europe each year but some are more desperate that they go through irregular avenues. In recent years, more than 3,000 annually have drowned in the sea.
Deadlock is nuanced but the symbolism to mark the narrative is clear and accessible, with the filmmakers framing the sea as the principal character behind the title of this short documentary. Both young men (Seif and Mahrez) fully comprehend the deadlock between the treacherous risk of the gamble to traverse the sea and the promise of crossing to the opportunities at the gateway to Europe. The brother of one man has already made it to Europe but there has been no word from the brother of the other man and the worst is feared. Discussing in public what has happened risks being seen as too fragile and vulnerable but there also is no question that the fears of not knowing whether someone is safe, secure or even alive are burdens that become ever more difficult to keep internalized.
SHORT FILM MIDNIGHT PROGRAM
Three horror shorts stand out in this year’s Midnight program. Directed by Joanna Fernandez, The Things We Keep delivers the expected goods in the genre but it also becomes a compelling realistic observation about obsessive-compulsive disorder.Kate (Rebecca Holopter) returns to help pack up the house of her mother (Jenny O’Hara, whom,many will recognize as the portrayer of Doug Heffernan’s mother in the popular sitcom The King of Queens). The relationship between mother and daughter has never been good but Kate realizes that her mother is no longer able to care for herself and it is time to place her in a nursing home. The problem is that the mother is a hoarder and she becomes more agitated as Kate tries to declutter the home. There are many strange and disgusting things but the most alarming for Kate is an ominous mark that looks like dark mold, which she finds when she peels back the wallpaper. It leads to a shocking discovery about why her mother had become so compulsive about her things.
In a director’s statement, Fernandez explained how the relationship between Kate and her mother in the film is based on her own tumultuous relationship with her mother, who also has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s and CTE, the same condition that has affected numerous football players as a result,of having been tackled with force and blows to their head. In fact, her mother also was physically abused by her mother (the director’s grandmother). “Fairytales and myths have long been a tool for people to deal with the horrors that plagued them,” Fernandez explained. “Horror, at its best, uses the genre as a means to tackle human drama and conflict.” Regarding OCD, she added that the film “dives into the psychology of a hoarder and examines the nature of compulsion and trauma, and how they intersect. As someone who has struggled with OCD and anxiety, I know firsthand how the mind can play tricks on us and the devastating impact mental illness can have on our lives and those around us.”
The second is Platanero, directed by Juan Frank Hernandez, a Dominican Republic native who now lives and works in Quebec. Two brothers who are originally from Haiti but who now live without proper papers in the Dominican Republic. Desperate because their status is in limbo and worried about being discovered and deported, one of the brothers works on a banana plantation where he has resorted to petty theft. The brothers decide to steal bananas from the plantation but are shocked to discover a werewolf prowling the land during the night. It is an effective imaginative take on the social issues that mark the desperate circumstances of the brothers. The film’s setting is based on Hernandez’s childhood memories of that same village and a banana plantation that was close to a shantytown for Haitian migrants.
In a director’s note, he explained the film’s provenance: “I noticed the growing tensions between Haitians and Dominicans in the Dominican Republic, and this left an indelible mark on me.” Given how little many in the States are misinformed about this region and the dire economic circumstances migrants face, the film does a solid job in heightening the awareness. “To achieve this, I chose to shape a realistic social story tinged with Caribbean folklore, in which the figure of the werewolf, who terrified me as a child, plays a predominant role,” Hernandez wrote in his director’s note. As with The Things We Keep, Platanero is a fine example of genre cinema’s facility with blending allegorical elements into considerations of social issues that compel viewers to consider perspectives that might not have been previously apparent.
The third is a delightful horror comedy, Swollen, by Roxy Sophie Sorkin, who also stars in one of the two leading roles. Two BFFs are staying at an AirBNB (think of the classic house in a Gothic horror flick), to recover from cosmetic surgery, After an inept burglar botched his attempt to intrude onto the premises, the women go back and forth about calling the local police because they do not want anyone to see that their swollen faces and bloodied bandages. Sorkin ramps up the absurd potential in this wacky storyline. The local police look like they strode right out of a gay leather bar. Their police cruiser is a toy, as is the house exterior that looks like someone constructed it from a hobby kit. Nevertheless, the acting snaps up a whip-smart script that offers up a big bounty of comedy that perfectly hits the rhythm and vibe.
SHORT FILM PROGRAM 5
Last year, Jianjie Lin, director from China, saw Brief History of A Family, a narrative rooted in the experiences of China’s one-child policy, premiered at Sundance, as his feature length directorial debut. Lin returned to Sundance this year with Hippopotami (He Ma), an absurd comedy that was filmed before his feature length project. At first, the story seems endearing enough even though the foreshadowing moments early on point to something darker. An oddly curious girl looks forward to the zoo and is focused on the hippo, an animal that seems harmless enough on the surface but is actually capable of something more sinister. According to his director’s statement, he was sparked by a news article about a couple’s business with shady underpinnings in northern China city, where the narrative also takes place. He added that an image persisted in his mind about the girl looking at a hippo and realizing that when it opens its mouth, the animal has powerful, dangerous-looking teeth. As Lin explained, “The girl wonders whether it’s going to eat her, or is it yawning. I see a curious gaze trying to penetrate the deceivingly docile look of reality – a reality kept obscure by the parents.” The tensions that were evident in Brief History of A Family are as apparent in Hippopotami.
In addition to his credit as writer for Omaha, a narrative feature that premiered at Sundance this year, Robert Machoian co-directed the documentary short The Long Valley with Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck. Machoian, a photographer as well, has been working on a long-term project documenting rural communities across the country in documentary films that are poetic video art pieces with a photobook feel. In this short, the images and voices of immigrants from Central and South America fill out the portrait of California’s Salinas Valley, which has been called the Salad Bowl of the World.
The Long Valley is a portrait of vibrancy, dignity, and humanity, showing viewers the frontline workers in the fields who have ensured that the region’s massive enterprise of more than 1.4 million acres of land that are used to produce corps year round continues, despite challenges in nature and the actions of humans who are insensitive or worse the bad actors. No doubt, we should be forever grateful and humble in honoring and respecting these individuals and their families. Meanwhile, images of gathering of storm and the sounds of winds gusting symbolize the forces that could disrupt the incredible legacy of the Salinas Valley and the workers who have been selfless stewards of it.
Comedy shorts that really hit their mark are diamonds to be appreciated and Such Good Friends, directed by Bri Klaproth and co-written with Jon Walkup, is excellent. The story premise is straightforward: a young woman is fed up with trying to please others and decides to cut ties with her gay male BFF she has known practically her entire life. She decides to do this by leaving a voicemail. However, the next day, she learns the shocking news about the tragic consequences of that voicemail. Meanwhile, the family of her former BFF have enlisted once again her service and comfort. The young woman relapses into her old patterns while contemplating whether or not she should reveal the dark screen behind what happened. Along with some appropriately snarky acting, the film nails it on a smashing good ending.