Tribeca Shorts, Part II: Fathers, Mothers, Dancers, and Daddies

The Tribeca Film Festival is a reliable place to find some quality short films, and this year is no exception. The festival closes this Sunday, but we wanted to play some catch-up from this year’s entries. Last year, Night Ride (Nattrikken) won Best Narrative Short and was nominated at this year’s Oscar ceremony. Stranger at the Gate (also nominated) took a Best Jury Mention for Best Documentary Short at last year’s festival and was also nominated in the Documentary Short Subject race.

Today’s batch of films defies description. There is some animation, a dash of comedy, and some really captivating documentaries. Which one of these sounds like it will perk up voters all year round?

If you missed our first day of Tribeca shorts coverage, you can find that here.

The Night Doctrine
“Everyone in Afghanistan has a shared pain about what these raids have left behind whether that’s the families or the soldiers conducting them,” is a line that comes late in the harrowing animated documentary short film, The Night Doctrine. The memories of harm against civilians during night raids is never far–the gunfire and violence feel like it’s ringing in our ears.

Doctrine is narrated by Lynzy Billings, an Afghan woman whose mother and sister were killed in a night raid. She was adopted by a British family when she was only twelve years old, but, when she grew up, she felt the longing to find out more about her history and family. As a journalist, she becomes inquisitive about how the United States government uses night raids to attack other countries only to mainly harm civilians. This tactic has been used in war after war that America is involved in, and directors Mauricio Rodriguez Pons and Almudena Toral include images of the final plans leaving Afghanistan from 2021.

The animation folds over itself as if its afraid it will leave out small details, and there is stunning transition where an ashtray becomes an aerial shot of war. It’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to secure interviews with former Afghan soldiers as it provides another intimate account of the horrors on the ground. Billings’ narration may seem quiet or careful, The Night Doctrine is a shock to the system like you’re being doused with a bucket of ice water.

Then Comes the Body
The power of movement, curiosity, and determination comes center stage in the entrancing doc short, Then Comes the Body. Director Jacob Krupnick’s Then Comes the Body is a testament to the strength of the heart as much as it is the strength of the body. Anyone who tells you that ballet is for sissies or the weak has never put on pointe shoes.

Daniel Ajala was exposed to ballet when he saw the film Save the Last Dance. A Nigerian man, Ajala then taught himself ballet by watching hours and hours of YouTube videos, but his mission is to now spread the power of dance to anyone who wants to learn (he doesn’t charge for classes). We have the pleasure of meeting two of his success stories. Olamide is a 21 year old dancers who began performing professionally at 17. Precious runs 40 minutes to get to class, and she has received a scholarship from Belgium to come dance.

There are gorgeous shots of Ajala’s dancers twirling and on pointe in public as people stare at them afar, their tutus and mud sticking to their toes. Sweat glistens on their backs, foreheads, and cheeks. Krupnick’s doc is an underdog tale, but it is also about embrace of striking beauty. You can dance anywhere, and Then Comes the Body grants you the permission to push yourself to the limit.

Let Liv
We sometimes live too much in the shadow of our parents. In Let Liv, one young woman’s first steps towards recovery are overshadowed by a parent who let them down. But maybe a unexpected confrontation is better than a planned trip to AA?

Liv is nervous to attend her first meeting with her new girlfriend, Marty. Is it too fast? It is only their first date, after all, but maybe starting the journey together will be helpful. Liv is receptive as she listens to other people’s stories and experiences, but when it’s her time to share, something unexpected happens: her alcoholic mother,  shows up.

Let Liv has a playful feel, but it never loses sight of what’s at stake. Director Erica Rose (working off a screenplay by star Olivia Levine) sprinkles in dashes of startling flashbacks of when she begs her mother to stay with her. The road to recovery is different for every single person, but Let Liv proves that forgiveness doesn’t have to follow certain steps.

American Sikh
Everyone has an idea of what Captain America looks like. The blue suit. The huge shield. The all-American good looks. Now take that image an toss it in the garbage, because American Sikh offers the notion that anyone can embody that suit. In Vishavjit Singh and Ryan Westra’s animated doc short, one man uses the Marvel icon to re-affirm his belief in the country he was born in.

The film opens in India in 1984. The Prime Minister is assassinated, and the symbol of the turban made everyone targets instead of equality. Vishavjit was born in Washington, D.C., so it’s a culture shock when his family moves back to India after missing it for a number of years. When Vishavjit returns to America as an adult, he faces nonstop prejudice and threats of violence, and that’s before the attack on September 11th.

The animation is stark and startling. Sometimes we only see hues of red that hint as Vishavjit’s passion for America, but also the notion of bloody threats. Shades of blues, yellows, and whites are used beautifully. Americans are obsessed with symbols and ideology, especially when it comes to the idea of being an American, but Vishavjit’s longing for the only country he truly knows is deeply felt.

In Passing
Have you ever dated someone and you felt that period where nothing is going right between you? Your schedules don’t match up or you’re exhausted when they want to be loving and exciting? Things around the house…just aren’t getting done…and it’s driving you insane. Hillia Aho’s In Passing expertly captures that jumbled frustration but never loses sight of the light at the end of the tunnel.

Fedra Ramírez Olivares plays a young chef who has to keep picking up shifts in order to make ends meet. It seems that the only time she gets any peace is when she takes her smoke break during her long shifts. When she comes home, her partner, played by Kaileela Hobby, wants to tell her about her day, and she paints portraits of people’s pets even though it doesn’t bring in as much as what her girlfriend does.

Silence is used very well in Aho’s film, especially because it’s something that these two need. It feels like a life preserver, and it might be the only thing keeping each other sane. In Passing reminds us that rough patches can just be that if you don’t allow them to bubble up, but reinforces that listening and sacrificing for the other can go a long way.

Daddy Issues
Directors Matt Campanella and Stephanie Chloé Hepner really want to push our buttons with this…

The first words we hear are Campenella’s Oliver repeating his filthy-mouthed mantra to himself in the mirror: shut the fuck up. Is he merely practicing or is he trying to make us believe it too? A fledgling dominatrix, Oliver steps out ready to whip, flog, and humiliate the hooded man in the next room only to discover…

You know those scenes in movies where you desperately want to slink our of your chair because you feel so uneasy? Daddy Issues has one of those in its short, 5-minute run time, but it would be a disservice to what it is or how it ends.

Oliver has disappointed his parents, it seems, in more ways than one, and fighting with your parent in public is so five years ago. Sparring with one of them while they are tied up and a hood dangling from their head is much funnier. Daddy Issues will make you clench muscles in your body that you didn’t know you had.