the Oscars are looming…10 movies are nominated…and all the actors and actresses we know…I make it my mission to see as much as I can…so today Elissa and I made a pilgrimage to Center City and to Carol and Rafe’s, together we walked to the Ritz at the Bourse…we passed the building which caught fire early Monday morning…on Chestnut at Third…the complete building was gutted…sad to see that beautiful old building completely destroyed…no traffic from Fourth to Second on Chestnut, and no traffic on Third…the authorities fear the facade will collapse… the Ritz at the Bourse is showing the nominated Animated Shorts and the Live Action Shorts ( short films )…The Ambler is also showing them as well as the documentaries…the nominated Animated Shorts are:
“Dear Basketball,” Glen Keane, Kobe Bryant
“Garden Party,” Victor Caire, Gabriel Grapperon
“Lou,” Dave Mullins, Dana Murray
“Negative Space,” Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata
“Revolting Rhymes,” Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer
they showed animated interludes between each animated short and a couple of highly commendable to lengthen the program…Dear Basketball, from the U.S., is a self-serving Kobe Bryant love affair with his basketball, he wrote the screenplay…the film is based on a letter Kobe Bryant wrote to The Players’ Tribune on November 29, 2015 announcing his retirement from basketball…Garden Party, from France, is a dark animated film by 6 French artists in animation school, MoPA…this is their graduation film…Lou, from Walt Disney/Pixar about a school bully…Negative Space, from France, about a father/son relationship…having to do with packing a suitcase ( I liked this one )…Revolting Rhymes, from U.K, twists and turns having to do with Sleeping Beauty, the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood…as told from the Wolf’s point of view ( I liked this one too )…they were all good but nothing outstanding like other years…then we have the Live Actions Shorts:
“DeKalb Elementary,” Reed Van Dyk
“The Eleven O’Clock,” Derin Seale, Josh Lawson
“My Nephew Emmett,” Kevin Wilson, Jr.
“The Silent Child,” Chris Overton, Rachel Shenton
“Watu Wote/All of Us,” Katja Benrath, Tobias Rosen
all five Live Action Shorts were disturbing…Elissa commented that we are living in sad times…and these films show our life and times…three based on true events…DeKalb Elementary, from the U.S., based on an actual 911 call from an elementary school in Atlanta, Georgis…guns in an elementary school…The Eleven O’Clock, from Australia…a pyschiatrist’s 11:00 appointment, the inmates have taken over the asylym…My Nephew Emmett…from a graduate student at NYU…a true story, a murder in 1955 Mississippi…The Silent Child, from the U.K…4 year old Libby, profoundly deaf becomes communicative through the love and caring of a social worker and sign language…Watu Wote/All of Us…from Kenya/Germany…Muslim and Christian solidarity when bus passengers are attacked by terrorists, true event…at the end of each short film they showed the makers of these short films as their nominations were announced…wonderful, disturbing films…
these are films which do not have a wide distribution…as does the Foreign Language films…only the winner usually gets broader viewing…and they are: “A Fantastic Woman” (Chile)
“The Insult” (Lebanon)
“Loveless” (Russia)
“On Body and Soul (Hungary)
“The Square” (Sweden)
Elissa’s son tells us The Square is pretty good…he gets to see the nominated entries, he’s in the business…the other barely viewed, but it’s getting better is the documentary…we have the feature length and the short film:
Best Documentary Feature:
Art Salazar 