Leap Before You Look by Stephane Goldsand, Mexico

This beautifully and creatively filmed documentary short follows the journey of Stephane (pronounced Stefan) Goldsand through his fears of being a father.  Goldsand uses B-roll or cutaways, to dramatically and often hilariously exemplify what he is feeling at that moment.  His painful childhood is also explored.  His wife, who is very eager and ready to have a child, seems to have a completely different out...
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ON LOCATION at ARIVACA

I wasn't able to attend the Arivaca portion of the fest this year, but I was able to find some trailers for the shorts program.  Links to reviews of the films I have seen are below.

I wasn't able to attend the Arivaca portion of the fest this year, but I was able to find some trailers for the shorts program.  Links to reviews of the fil...
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abUSed - The Postville Raid by Luis Argueta, USA

This was an engrossing documentary about the largest, most expensive immigration raid in U.S. history, which took place in Postville, Iowa at Agriproscessors, a Kosher slaughter house and meat packing plant.  I was especially interested because I read the book, Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America and I have lived in southeastern Iowa off and on for 20 years. 

The film consisted of ...
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THE PIPE by Risteard O Domhnaill, Ireland

The Pipe is a documentary that draws the audience into the intimate experience of the Irish coastal community of Rossport.  It follows the community's 8-year battle with Shell Oil Company to prevent them from laying an oil pipe through their coastal waters. The oil pipe and its potential dangers if it ever broke would destroy fishing and farming which are the major livelihoods of the community.  The beautiful prist...
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GRANDPA'S WET DREAM by Chihiro Amemiya, Japan

This short documentary on a 75-year-old man who has been a porn star in Japan for 15 years was very engaging to say the least.  Well shot and edited with some behind-the-scenes footage of the making of his films. It's a great look into the Japanese porn world.  Interviews with friends and business associates and with Grandpa include his interest in porn and how he got into the business.  Highly entertaining and...
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THE GREATER GOOD by Kendall Nelson & Chris Pilaro, USA

This documentary tried very hard to be balanced about the pros and cons of vaccine use today.  But being very wary of vaccines, I personally found the documentary to have lots of evidence to support not taking vaccines.  Mainstream scientific research is not conclusive about the safety of vaccine use.  There has been no research performed to show what happens when a person does not take vaccines, so we...
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This stop-motion animated short faithfully retells O'Henry's story of the Gift of the Magi.  This classic story is about a very poor couple.  The wife has beautiful long hair and the husband has a gold watch. The husband sells his gold watch for a beautiful accessory for her hair and she sells her hair for a nice chain for his watch.

I loved the detail on the animated set pieces.  But I found the animation at times choppy or non-existent and at other times very ...
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RUN TO THE EAST by Henry Lu, USA

This documentary follows three Native American high school students who are cross-country runners.  We see them successfully focus on their training in spite of the numerous obstacles they face in their culture.  Such obstacles include, meth abuse and alcoholism, lack of transportation, lack of money, lack of emotional support, and lack of opportunity on the reservation.  Their goal is to get running scholarships in order t...
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