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The five Oscar-nominated films in the documentary-short category do not make for light viewing, but they are essential stories about modern troubles and crimes of the past.
The shorts, on a national touring show organized by Shorts International, are split into two programs, each with a broad theme that unites the films in each section.
Program A features stories about people confronted with crisis.
• In "Body Team 12," director David Darg follows Garmai Sumo, a health worker in Liberia, as she and her colleagues collect bodies of those killed by Ebola.
• In "A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness," Pakistani journalist/filmmaker Sharmeen Obeid-Chinoy introduces us to Saba Qaiser, who at 18 survived being shot in the face and left for dead by her father and uncle. Their rationale was that Saba brought dishonor to the family, because she ran away and married her boyfriend. Saba wants to press charges, but she is under pressure from her neighborhood elders to forgive her relatives, which would have the effect of letting them get away with attempted murder.
• Murder is prevalent in "Last Day of Freedom," by Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman. The film's centerpiece is an interview — augmented with graceful and powerful animation — with Bill Babbitt, as he describes how his mentally ill Vietnam-veteran brother was tried for murder, poorly represented in court and sentenced to death.
Program B has two stories about artists expressing themselves in spite of adversity.
• Director Courtney Marsh's "Chau, Beyond the Lines" introduces us to a young Vietnamese man, Chau, who perseveres in spite of awkward limbs weakened by birth defects — a result of his mother's exposure to Agent Orange dropped on Vietnam by the U.S. military. Marsh shows Chau's determination at a summer camp for Agent Orange-affected kids and as he strikes out on his own to pursue his dream to be an artist and designer.
• In "Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah," British journalist/filmmaker Adam Benzine interviews the French director who spent 12 years of his life making "Shoah," the nearly 10-hour documentary that is considered the definitive film about the Nazis' genocide of the Jewish people. Benzine draws info from Lanzmann with the same painstaking care Lanzmann used to get Jewish survivors to talk about the Holocaust.
The five documentaries show the drive of documentary filmmakers to tell tough stories, to explore things audiences would otherwise ignore. The nominees also show the commitment of one company, HBO Documentary Films, which is behind three of them: "Body Team 12," "A Girl in the River" and the Lanzmann profile.
I'm not sure which of these five will win the Oscar. It's always the cynical choice to choose anything connected to the Holocaust, but the Lanzmann interview isn't as illuminating or as complete as it could be. "Last Day of Freedom" might have an edge, for the way its animation adds depth to the eyewitness account.
If I had an Academy vote, I'd opt for "A Girl in the River," which through one young woman's story captures the on-the-ground details of a system rigged for injustice. It's the one story of these five about which I most want to know more.
Twitter: @moviecricket —
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Oscar-nominated documentary shorts
Five films that tackle serious topics and introduce audiences to fascinating people.
Where • Tower Theatre.
When • Opens today.
Rating • Not rated; program A is probably R for images of violence and some language; program B is probably PG-13 for references to war and the Holocaust.
Running time • 163 minutes, split into two programs of 87 and 76 minutes; some shorts are subtitled.