There are three assumptions most people make when they hear the word “documentary”: No. 1: it’s about history, No. 2: it’s boring and No. 3: it’s long. Really long.
In the case of the Twin Cities Film Fest’s documentary short films selection, though, I can confidently discount the third assumption, roll my eyes at the second and object to the characterization in the first.
This is because while fest’s selection of shorts is somewhat based in history — the generation-spanning nature of most of the projects match the block’s title, “A Family Affair” — but they felt hardly historical, and I would challenge the notion that the opportunity to hear from rising filmmakers and their subjects is in any way boring.
The best of these stories is the wide-reaching yet brilliantly personal “Maybe It’s Just the Rain,” a film by Filipino soccer player Reina Bonta that acts just as much as an ode to Bonta’s relationship with her grandmother as it is one to the Philippine team’s historic first performance at the 2023 FIFA World Cup.
Bonta proves herself as more than a glorified game vlogger as she narrates the team’s journey with vulnerability and wisdom, employing split-screen editing and various types of footage to create a lived-in experience that had me tearing up before the minute mark.
Perhaps even more earth-shattering is the film’s second half, in which her grandmother-granddaughter visit to her family’s former province in the Philippines gives context to the way Bonta was carried by — and continues to carry on — the courage, dignity and history of women far beyond the stadium lights. It got a warm reception from the late afternoon crowd, and it certainly gets my recommendation as the best of the fest so far.
Less striking was “Taha’s Theorem,” a look into the lives of a Kurdish family who escaped Iraq in the early ‘90s. The titular patriarch’s quest to solve a seemingly unsolvable mathematical theorem raises some interesting ideas about assimilation to U.S. culture and finding purpose amidst an ever-shifting geopolitical landscape, but as the longest short of the day by far, its reliance on “tell, don’t show” becomes comparatively numbing. Ultimately its interesting ideas get scattered among an only scarcely artistic storytelling structure.
The more immediate “What I Am Today: Maa Maa Dei,” which producer Eunice Wangadi said in a post-screening Q&A was filmed across just four to five days, is strikingly vivid and emotional by contrast. The slow revelation of Jaye Fong’s growth from self-proclaimed “restaurant kid” to co-owner of an Asian-American pop-up honoring her parents’ legacy is inviting, like we ourselves have been welcomed into their cramped kitchen to huddle around for close-ups of tantalizing treats.
The same can be said for “The Inadequacy of Language in Life After Death,” a remembrance of the narrator’s mother’s death that writer and director Lillie Wojcik told me she returned to her Minnesota roots to capture. The short meditation on her grief through fitness also relies heavily on the idea of natural cycles of loss and rebirth, as seen in the beautifully photographed scenery throughout.
“It’s funny because we shot it in New York, but ideally I would have shot it in Minnesota; it’s just not where I live anymore,” Wojcik said. “ … That’s where I feel very comfortable and connected to my — I’m not religious but, like, my soul.”
Despite being the shortest of the day, “Inadequacy” is no less moving than its counterparts, perhaps even more so due to its purpose as a healing “poem” for its creator. Another beauty of the shorts block: Wojcik and several other filmmakers expressed in their post-screening talks that they had not envisioned their project becoming a widely-viewed cinematic short, but the freedom of the medium allowed them to do so — and for us to view some truly delightful artistry in the process.
Among these and rounding out the documentary section are “The Gay Space Agency” and “Where the Wind Takes You,” which complemented the family-centric centerpieces with a sweepingly sincere satire heteronormative space exploration and a breathtaking ode to the explorers of the Arctic, respectively.
These shorts showcased the talent, culture and meaning that we can experience from projects often requiring little in the way of funding and, obviously, even less of your time.
For talented filmmakers like Wojcik, the meaning can extend well beyond their proverbial 15 minutes of fame.
“I do feel like it’s exciting to get to share that with the people I’m most close to, for them to get to see it in a theater and celebrate my mom in that way,” Wojcik said. “ … Finishing (the film’s run) in Minnesota will be the perfect closing chapter.”
Kevin Lynch can be reached at lync1832@stthomas.edu.
