• Shorts Program 5: Doc-u-nation

    by  • March 7, 2007 • Cinequest 17, Shorts

    3/7 4:00 PM Camera 12, 3/10 9:30 PM Camera 12, 3/11 4:15 PM Camera 12


    This collection of documentary short films is anything but ordinary. There’s “The Fighting Cholitas,” whose titular heroines wrestle in the ring, lucha libre style, in their traditional layerd skirts and scarves. “Spitfire 944” offers an 83-year-old pilot the chance to watch footage of his dramatic crash for the first time since it was shot during World War II. A young man takes a road trip to visit his family members and see how they’re handling his coming out as gay a decade before in “Relative Freedom.” Some of the films are more dreamlike than one might expect from a documentary, like “Half Life: A Journey to Chernobyl,” which turns the book-length poem about the nuclear disaster site by Mario Petrucci into film. “Stringers” takes us into the world of those folks who chase disaster with videocameras in tow, hoping to sell the resulting footage to local news stations. This is a wonderful collection, a glimpse into other lives around the globe.