From horrific crimes to orchestral dreams, the Oscar-nominated Shorts: Documentary nominees span the tragic and the inspiring.
By James Verniere/Boston Movie News
Usually, “Oscar-nominated Shorts: Documentary” is a category filled with films that make you feel terrible, a product of the idea that such films must, therefore, be art, and this year is no different. Of the five nominees, three are about horrible murders: a gruesome stabbing death of a convenience store worker, a 2018 school shooting massacre in Florida that left 17 dead, mostly children, and the killing of a young innocent Black barber in a Chicago street by the police. The remaining two titles are both (oddly) about musicians, notably young and notably old, and, in both cases, Beethoven.
Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s poetically titled “Instruments of a Beating Heart” is the story of first-grade children in Tokyo vying to get a place in an orchestra that will be trained to play some of the percussive parts in Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” Edited from Yamazaki’s 2023 full-length documentary “The Making of a Japanese,” the film tells how the Japanese culture instills values such as self-discipline and empathy in its young people. The film’s protagonist, Ayame, is not the best student in her class. But she is determined to play the big drum in the band, except she does not really understand what it takes to make her wish come true. The film, which is a “fly on the wall” study of what happens when Ayame is not prepared for her first big test, is a heart-tugging experience for sure. At the risk of being “too cute,” “Instruments of a Beating Heart” arguably also steps over the limit of crying children.
Bill Morrison’s “Incident,” which I am picking as the winner of the award, is a formally rigorous depiction of the events leading up to and following the 2018 killing of South Side barber Harith Augustus by an officer of the Chicago Police Department. Morrison’s earlier film “Dawson City: Frozen Time” was named best documentary by the Boston Society of Film Critics in 2016. In his latest work, Morrison, who was born in Chicago, uses only found footage to create his film: police body-cams, security cameras, CCTV, dash-cam footage, at times with four screens within the screen going all at once, to tell the tale of a man whose legally-carried handgun gets him killed. Morrison’s thrilling, latest work suggests that the idea that we live in our own movie has taken a new, tragic twist.
Smriti Mundhra’s “I Am Ready, Warden” tells the true story of John Ramirez, a former Marine, who horribly stabbed a convenience store worker named Pablo Castro to death over an item worth $1.50. On death row in Texas, awaiting execution, Ramirez expresses regrets to Castro’s family, especially his angry son Aaron. In prison, Ramirez finds solace and hope for forgiveness in religion. The film is a countdown to Ramirez’s execution after 14 years on death row, a real-life “Dead Man Walking.”
Molly O’Brien’s “The Only Girl in the Orchestra” celebrates her aunt Orin O’Brien, who was just that, the only girl and a double bassist for over 50 years in the New York Philharmonic. Leonard Bernstein called her “a miracle.” The daughter of Western star George O’Brien (“The Iron Horse” and more) and actress Marguerite Churchill (“Dracula’s Daughter”), O’Brien had, according to one reporter-chauvinist, “curves like her bass” and a desire as a teenager to find refuge from her parents’ stormy union in her bass-playing obsession. For her, playing was an escape. In bell-like tones, O’Brien recalls the audition for the Philharmonic, which could be any piece of music from classical music’s 300-year history. You were expected “to know it, or sight read it.” O’Brien yearned to be a New York City artist and an independent woman. She achieved both ends but regrets not having children. When her niece tells her that her basses, including an 18th-century Duke, are her children, she demurs. “They’re my pets.”
The Kennedy/Marshall production “Death By Numbers” depicts 2018 school shooting survivor Sam Fuentes, who also wrote the film. We follow as Fuentes, who is very articulate and deeply traumatized, goes to the killer Nicholas Cruz’s trial to watch the jury decide if he gets the death penalty or life without parole and to make a statement to the court. Directed by Kim A. Snyder (“Newtown”), who has made several films about school shootings, “Death By Numbers” reminds us that the “bigot” killer emptied his assault rifle into a “Holocaust Studies” classroom. He killed 17. The mournful music of Icelander Olafur Arnald is affecting for sure. But is it too much? Is it all too much?
How to watch the Oscar-nominated shorts
The Oscar Shorts program is showing at the following theaters:
Plimoth Cinema, 137 Warren Ave., Plymouth
Institute of Contemporary Art, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston
Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge
Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline
CinemaSalem, 1 E. India Square, Salem
West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington St., West Newton
Fine Arts Theatre, 21 Summer St., Maynard
The Natick Center for the Arts, 14 Summer St., Natick
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