The 2015 Oscar-Nominated Shorts: Documentary

For the tenth consecutive year, Shorts HD and Magnolia Pictures present the Oscar-Nominated Short Films, opening on Jan. 30th. With all three categories offered – Animated, Live Action and Documentary – this is your annual chance to predict the winners (and have the edge in your Oscar pool)! A perennial hit with audiences around the country, don’t miss this year’s selection of shorts.

Please note there will be one five minute intermission mid-way through all screenings of these documentary shorts.

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM A: 81 minutes
Joanna (Aneta Kopacz) – 40 minutes/Poland/Polish
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 (Ellen Goosenberg Kent and Dana Perry) – 39 minutes/USA/English

DOCUMENTARY PROGRAM B: 79 minutes
Our Curse (Tomasz Sliwinski and Maciej Slesicki) – 27 minutes/Poland/Polish
White Earth (J. Christian Jensen) – 20 minutes/USA/English and Spanish
The Reaper (La Parka) (Gabriel Serra Arguello) – 29 minutes/Mexico/Spanish

SYNOPSES

With great visual poetry, JOANNA portrays the simple and meaningful moments in the life of her family. Diagnosed with an untreatable illness, Joanna promises her son that she will do her best to live for as long as possible. It is a story of close relationships, tenderness, love and thoughtfulness.

The timely documentary CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1 spotlights the traumas endured by America’s veterans, as seen through the work of the hotline’s trained responders, who provide immediate intervention and support in hopes of saving the lives of service members.

OUR CURSE is a personal statement of the director and his wife, who have to deal with a very rare and incurable disease of their newborn child – the Ondine’s Curse (also known as CCHS, congenital central hypoventilation syndrome). People affected with this disease stop breathing during sleep and require lifetime mechanical ventilation on a ventilator.

Thousands of souls flock to America’s Northern Plains seeking work in the oil fields. WHITE EARTH is the tale of an oil boom seen through unexpected eyes. Three children and an immigrant mother brave a cruel winter and explore themes of innocence, home and the American Dream.

THE REAPER: Efrain, known as the Reaper, has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years. We will discover his deep relationship with death and his struggle to live.