Shorts
Often treated as a cinematic stepchild, shorts must fight a Lilliputian's battle to be seen and respected. Four dedicated programs of shorts are presented at T/F. In addition, we found eight more short films — and four audio shorts presented by our sister, the Third Coast International Audio Festival — that help to give shorts their due. They pack more ideas, imagination and brio than movies many times their size — and demand to be seen.
- Accidentally Sprayed
- A young Colombian filmmaker tells a visually arresting personal story revolving around the US-funded fumigation of his country's coca crops. (Part of Extremities shorts program.)
- Bitch Academy
- A you-are-there-in-the-classroom session with a strange and charismatic instructor from Russia, who educates women in how to snag a rich oligarch. (Plays with O'er the Land.)
- La Caminata
- A small Mexican town hosts a "Scared Straight" simulation of the border-crossing drama, and in the process has rebuilt its economy. (Part of I Will Survive shorts program.)
- China's Wild West
- Jade miners chip away at the austerely beautiful neverlands of China. (Plays with Loot.)
- Close Your Eyes and Look at Me
- A Muslim woman in Scotland shares her views on wearing a hajib. (Part of Profiling shorts program.)
- The Conscience of Nhem En
- Shortly before the Khmer Rouge executed 17,000 prisoners, they asked a teenager named Nhem En to photograph them. 30 years later he and three survivors tell their story. (Part of Oscar-nominated shorts program.)
- A Different Color Blue
- This jazzy portrait introduces us to poet and artist Charles Curtis Blackwell, who lost his eyesight at the age of 20.
- Dreznica
- This lyrical Super-8 journey reveals the dreams and memories of several blind people. (Part of Extremities shorts program.)
- The Final Inch
- We journey to the poorest parts of India, where the final battle is being waged to eradicate polio in the world. (Part of Oscar-nominated shorts program.)
- First Kid to Learn English in Mexico
- A charmer about a problem child's attempts to wrestle with a new tongue. (Part of I Will Survive shorts program.)
- Forest to Desert
- An audio doodle about this phrase: "Humankind is preceded by forest, and followed by desert." (Third Coast audio short.)
- Forty Men for the Yukon
- In the northern "outback," we come to know two hardscrabble men, one who runs a gold mine, the other a bar. (Part of I Will Survive shorts program.)
- Germans in the Woods
- In this animated doc, a haunted vet lingers on the soldier he killed during WW II. (Plays with Secret Screening Red.)
- Ghost in the Material
- Although in prison, a man's artistic sensibilities allows him to inhabit another world. (Part of Profiling shorts program.)
- Glass Trap
- Guy Ritchie meets National Geographic, in this balls-to-the-wall look at flashy gangsters with a thing for fighting goldfish. (Part of Extremities shorts program.)
- Is That My Imagination?
- The story of a mind on strike, with a cameo by Mario Savio of the Free Speech Movement. (Third Coast audio short.)
- Lies
- An animated doc featuring three perfectly true stories about lying. (Plays with Bronx Princess and Tommy.)
- Ma Bar
- 73-year old Bill McFadyen may be getting on in years, but can he still bench press enough to make him Scotland's champion? (Part of Profiling shorts program.)
- Orange Bombs
- A loving Lebanese couple tends to their orange grove — picking oranges and defusing bombs dropped during a former conflict. (Part of I Will Survive shorts program.)
- Roz (and Joshua)
- A homeless woman living alone in a car talks about her son. (Part of Profiling shorts program.)
- Scared
- A guy muses on the fears associated with a loved one's body.
- Skin
- Geoff is on a quest to not only cover his body in tattoos, but also to preserve his skin for all to remember him by. (Part of Profiling shorts program.)
- Slaves
- In this colorfully animated film, two Sudanese youth share their stories of being abducted for slavery. (Part of I Will Survive shorts program.)
- Smile Pinki: A Real World Fairy Tale
- A young social outcast with a cleft lip is helped by a visiting plastic surgeon. (Part of Oscar-nominated shorts program.)
- Steel Homes
- The secret lives of storage spaces. (Part of I Will Survive shorts program.)
- Tommy
- Colorfully introduces us to the joyful yet lonely life of a gay guesthouse owner in Havana. (Plays with Bronx Princess and Lies.)
- Tongzhi in Love
- Evocatively profiles gay men in China struggling to come out, as they balance family obligations and the lives they want to lead. (Plays with Love on Delivery.)
- A Transgender Childhood
- Growing up isn't easy — when you feel as if your mind is one gender, and your body another. (Third Coast audio short.)
- The Witness: Room 306
- Only a few men were with MLK in the hours leading up to his tragic death, and in this powerful short we meet one of them. (Part of Oscar-nominated shorts program.)
- The World's Largest Shopping Mall
- Sam Green (Weather Underground) takes us on a tour of a gynormous mall near Guangzhou, China that seemingly has everything but shoppers. (Part of Extremities shorts program.)