Shorts Program
Sunday, May 22nd @ 1pm - Gene Siskel Film Center
Doc10 presents our first short documentary film program. 10 shorts totaling over 122 minutes, discover the next break-out doc filmmakers in a sensory-driven collection of our favorite short nonfiction films from around the world.
LOVE, DAD
Diana Cam Van Nguyen
12 mins, Czech Republic
Director, Diana Cam Van Nguyen, rediscovers letters her father used to write her from prison. That loving words from those letters seem to be gone now. Diana decides to write back in hope to find the connection again. She puts in writing what could not be said: blaming him for family ́s break-up but also trying to understand. What emerges is this powerful short film about ties and gaps between a child and a parent.
QUITTING TIME
Cameron Yates
8 mins, USA
A city bus driver’s shift ends—but even after Luis clocks out, he fills his hours with an extra-curricular activity that keeps him on the move.
NALUJUK NIGHT
Jennie Williams
13 mins, Canada
Every January 6th from the dark of the Nunatsiavut night, the Nalujuit appear on the sea ice. They walk on two legs, yet their faces are animalistic, skeletal, and otherworldly. Despite the frights, Nalujuk Night is a beloved annual event, showing that sometimes it can be fun to be scared. Rarely witnessed outside of Nunatsiavut, this lets young and old, to prove their courage and come together as a community to celebrate culture and tradition.
… AND I WAS LEFT BEHIND
Mayssa Almumin
7 mins, Kuwait/ Qatar
At a time when we are separated by COVID-19 travel restrictions, a memory of my grandmother's words becomes redefined. She spoke of travel as loss and longing for loved ones, and now that I am far away from family, her words speak to my feelings of isolation. Reenacting my childhood moments, when I sat in her room as she made dresses on her sewing machine, I transform into my grandmother and my child self.
VIRTUAL VOICE
Suzannah Mirghani
7 mins, Sudan/Qatar
The Suzi doll is an ego-warrior, my online avatar, marching to the algorithms of social media. She is lit by temporary outrage. A trending indignation. A passion that is fashion. Her activism is abstract. Steeped in the politics of the popular. Her help is hypothetical. We know many girls like Suzi, and many times we are her: vacuous virtual voices, echoing injustices.
HIT LIKE A WOMAN
Tamarzee Nooze
12 mins, Canada
As the snare drum echoes, we are taken into the world of drummer Sarah Thawer through a bright mix of styles and speeds to paints a musical portrait of an inspired, ass-kicking drummer. Wholly brought to you by the forces of intergenerational feminism and international music.
MY DISABILITY ROADMAP
Dan Habib & Samuel Habib
22 mins, USA
Samuel Habib, 21, wants to date, leave home, go to college. But he drives a 350-pound wheelchair, uses a communication device, and can have a seizure at any moment. Determined to find his path forward, he seeks out guidance from America’s most rebellious disability activists. Will they empower him to launch the bold adult life he craves?
SWIMMING THROUGH
Samantha Sanders
15 mins, USA
As the brutal Chicago winter draws near, Deirdre, Helen and Jennefer—avid open water swimmers—make a pact to continue their daily sunrise swim through the snow and ice. This commitment becomes their salvation from lockdown and helps alleviate each of their personal struggles as the pandemic rages on.
THE FAMILY STATEMENT
Grace Harper and Kate Stonehill
15 mins, USA
Using messages drawn from a family WhatsApp group, The Family Statement constructs a conversation between the Sackler family and those afflicted by the opioid crisis and brings the notoriously private family into dialogue with those living the consequences of the opioid epidemic, offering a poignant commentary on capitalism, corporate accountability, denial and pain.
NICE TO MEET YOU ALL
Guen Murroni
11 mins, UK
A celebration of a woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder who has survived human trafficking rings in the US.