Oscar-Nominated Short Film Series Plays at Camera 3

Enjoy going to the movies, but tired of all those 2-hour, big budget films filled with A-list stars and cliched plots? Ready to try a new film experience?

Look no further than the 2014 Oscar Nominated Short Films series, playing at Camera 3 Cinema in Downtown San Jose in anticipation of the Oscars on March 2nd. Viewers can select one of three programs, Live Action, Animated, or Documentary short films, each of which contains 5 individual films shown back-to-back. The Live Action and Animated films opened on January 31st, while the Documentaries just entered theaters on Friday, February 7th.

I had the chance to see the documentary film program, which lasted about 3 hours but was full of intriguing content.

The films themselves:

Gallery • 5 Photos

"CaveDigger"

Faced with the task of measuring up to last year’s gems like “Inocente“ and “Redemption,” the new entries did not disappoint. They were threaded together by a common theme of overcoming suffering and reexamining the events of one’s past.

“The Lady in Number 6” chronicled the experiences of the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor, Alice Herz-Sommer, and the role her piano playing and love for music had in saving her life. It provided a nuanced, inspiring view into the soul of a lively interview subject, though it dragged on at times with its numerous historical anecdotes and photographs.

The second film, “Karama Has No Walls,” was made up of amateur camcorder footage of a 2011 uprising in Yemen that started out peaceful but was met with violent government backlash. The incredibly graphic and bloody footage is enough to draw tears for all the senseless violence progressing on screen, and does its job at exposing humans at their lowest point. While not overly artistic, “Karama” will continue to have merit as an important historical document.

“Facing Fear” detailed the accidental meeting of a man and the former neo-Nazi skinhead who had beaten him unconscious as a gay teenager 25 years before. It was a familiar but current “Jesus story” about the power of forgiveness. The friendship the two men forged does not make sense in any respect, making it all the more intriguing.

The lightest fare of the program was arguably “CaveDigger,” a phenomenally-paced look at one man’s passion of carving cathedral-like caves into New Mexico sandstone. It was relatable to the average audience with its universal theme of people needing to follow their passions despite the cost to those around them.

Rounding out the documentaries was “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall,” an almost too intimate view into end of life care and the emotional development of inmates sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison. The film follows one 82-year-old prisoner’s last two weeks in an inmate-run hospice program at a maximum security correctional facility. It explores the extreme love and compassion between prisoners (many of them former murderers) that no one would ever expect to see in a prison.

My pick to win:

With documentaries, I find the most poignant and least dry are the ones that film a series of events as they occur in real-time. Out of the five films, “Prison Terminal” had the strongest story and an outstanding emotional connection with the audience. I predict that its humanizing portrait of prison ‘lifers’ will strike a chord with viewers and earn it the Oscar.

The venue:

The great thing about Camera 3 is that it’s an all around experience with a sense of atmosphere, not just a boring old theater. This venue plays host to a ComedySportz league, cult classics, independent films, and the ever-popular Rocky Horror Picture Show, so the vibe is pretty wacky. Sharing the building is Psycho Donuts, a particularly unique (read: creepy) donut and coffee shop. Many moviegoers stop by there first to try a “Kookie Monster” or a “Michael Jackson” before their show.

The theater was not particularly full, but there was a good contingent of documentary enthusiasts, most of whom were over the age of 50. The social and cultural documentary genre is typically not the most popular, though it holds a power that no other genre can claim — it provides true, no-holds-barred insights into the current human condition around the world. The genre is continuously growing, with new concepts like the real-life Facebook impersonation mystery-hunting of “Catfish,” as well as raw, uncensored views into the lives of individuals and groups with characteristics most people know little about, like “My Flesh and Blood” or “Lost Boys of Sudan” (some of my all-time favorites).

These nominees for Documentary Short Subject each make a contribution to film as an art form, exposing subtleties and individual experiences of human life that are best understood when viewed through the lens of a single, small-scale camera. Tapping into viewers’ raw emotions, documentaries remind us of what it means to be human.