2020 Oscar Shorts Festival

Documentary Shorts

R rating, 160 min., plus intermission

6:30 p.m. Thurs., Feb. 6, 2020 (BUY TICKETS) >
7 p.m. Fri., Feb. 7, 2020 (BUY TICKETS) >

All five documentary short film nominees will be shown each evening, with complimentary snacks at intermission.

LIFE OVERTAKES ME
John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson, Sweden/USA, 39 min.
Hundreds of refugee children in Sweden who have fled with their families from extreme trauma in their home countries have become afflicted with Resignation Syndrome. Facing deportation, they withdraw from the world into a coma-like state, as if frozen, for months or even years.

LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL)
Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva, UK, 39 min.
Over the course of 15 years, a class of young girls from disadvantaged neighborhoods in war-torn Kabul, learn to read and write, and grow together in confidence through the joy of skateboarding.

IN THE ABSENCE
Yi Seung-Jun and Gary Byung-Seok Kam, South Korea, 28 min.
When the MV Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.

WALK RUN CHA-CHA
Laura Nix and Colette Sandstedt, USA, 21 min.
Chipaul and Millie Cao reunited in 1980s Los Angeles after being separated by the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they become ballroom dancers to reconnect again and make up for lost time.

ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN
Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan, USA, 28 min.
Bruce Franks Jr., a leading Ferguson activist and battle rapper who was elected to the overwhelmingly white and Republican Missouri House of Representatives, must overcome both personal trauma and political obstacles to pass a bill critical to his community.