#54 Cavalier (2013)

Directed by Steven Schardt. Written by Steven Schardt and Christian Palmer. Starring Christian Palmer.

A short film directed by a Seattle/Kentucky/New York-based filmmaker, Steven Schardt. Scotty is an alcoholic and is appearing to lose any custody he might have remaining over his 20 month-old son when he decides to kidnap him and take him on an impromptu road trip. The story, which appears to have neither a definite beginning nor end, culminates in a roadside motel where Scotty meets and entertains a fellow alcoholic in the form of a lonesome woman. I am happy that this movie and the artists involved will get some exposure at SXSW as I personally know the filmmaker. At the screening at Northwest Film Forum, it was apparent that many of the other audience members were impacted positively by this short as its concepts of divorce, fatherhood, responsibility and/or alcoholism possibly touched home more for many others than for myself.

#53 A Story for the Modlins (2012)

By Sergio Oksman.

A documentary short about an artistic family pieced together from a discovered box of old photos, letters, journals, a VHS tape and knick-knacks of various sorts. This awkward family appears to have attempted to escape from modern society by secluding themselves in their apartment in Madrid, Spain. The father was an unknown actor who never succeeded at getting his break in Hollywood. The mother was a talented artist who experimented with painting, sculpture and photography, although the themes of most of her works were quite bizarre. The end to this short film is as mystifying as the entire family story of these three characters. It makes you wonder if there really are so many out-of-the-ordinary people in the world or if recovered random artifacts of any normal family could be interpreted in such a way as to highlight only the bizarre characteristics and tell a story that veers quite far away from reality.

#46 — #47 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Documentary (Part 2) (2012)

#46 Redemption — Jon Alpert & Matthew O'Neill

#47 Open Heart — Kief Davidson & Cori Shepherd Stern

This post gets a label of 5 stars primarily for this last film: Open Heart. I believe it will be the winner of the Oscar, and it deserves to be. It was a very touching story worth viewing for anybody. Even though it is only a short-length film and therefore harder to come-by, I recommend it over about 90% of the feature-length films I have on here.

#36 — #38 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Documentary (Part I) (2012)

#36 Kings Point — Sari Gilman and Jedd Winer

#37 Mondays at Racine — Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan

#38 Inocente — Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine

#28 — #35 Oscar Nominated Shorts: Animated (2012)

#28 Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" (2012) — David Silverman

#29 Adam and Dog (2011) — Minkyu Lee

#30 Fresh Guacamole (2012) — PES

#31 Head over Heels (2012) — Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly

#32 Paperman (2012) — John Kahrs

Highly Commended:

#33 Abiogenesis (2011) — Richard Mans

#34 Dripped (2011) — Léo Verrier

#35 The Gruffalo's Child (2011) — Uwe Heidschötter and Johannes Weiland