While feature-length films often steal the show at festivals, shorts shouldn’t be forgotten; and, as I’ve long believed, they offer just as powerful a glimpse into cinema as their longer siblings.
What’s unique about the shorts I’ve seen thus far at Tribeca Festival 2022, is that they offer insight into their characters lives, their city, or their lifestyles. They have been less art and more exploration: and that’s a good thing. Some of them have a flare to them all their own, complete with poetry, colors, and rhyme, such as the charming “Hoop Dreams.” However others shine a light on other parts of life, such as struggling for money in the big city, family ties, and slowing down every once in a while.
For this survey of the short films playing at Tribeca, I’ve chosen two: “Closing Dynasty+” and “Bardo.”
“Closing Dynasty+” is a touching film, one which follows a little girl, Queenie (Milinka Winata) as she travels through the rough streets of New York City on a day when she should be in school. The film is directed by Lloyd Lee Choi; and while the film could have focused on poverty, trials, and tribulations, it decides instead to focus on the spunk and will of its child protagonist.
What is nice about “Closing Dynasty+” is that it makes you care for its lead; and Winata adds innocence and fervor to her character which makes the performance work all the more. There’re grand shots of NYC streets — which show how small Queenie is compared to the city, but there’s more. We see the life of the street: sidewalk vendors, businesses, restaurants, and passerbys, some of which Queenie approaches for money. But, in a special way, Queenie is always asking for money by offering them something in return. She’s a hustler, and, at what appears to be a young age of 8 or 9, her acumen in the subject is both touching and sometimes worrisome.
A Vibrant, NYC Portrait
Lee Choi, who also produced the film, has, with this short, completed a close, intimate project. It shows a different side to NYC than we are used to seeing. Where it would have been easy to make a drama in which a young girl such as Queenie is the victim of different criminal activities, “Closing Dynasty+” diverts. It instead shows snippets of the lives of the people that Queenie comes into contact with as a portrait. There’s working class people on a subway, there’s Wall Street types trying to barter with Queenie, and there’s fellow Chinese neighbors who know the real her. And what works about the film is that you feel both part of NYC’s neighborhoods and this girl’s life — and it makes you care about both.
What works, also, is while viewers may guess where “Closing Dynasty+” is going, the film is subtle to pick apart at Queenie’s drive. She is our tour guide to the city; and along the way we begin to care about her, care about what happens to her. The ending of the film is both touching and sublime, and not something that I want to hint at here. The film excels in making you feel its happenings; it meets its people on a human level, and wraps up the proceedings in a way that makes you feel good for having watched it. All-in-all a nice short, and one you should catch during your time at Tribeca.
The second short, “Bardo,” is a different kind of film; but one, that like “Closing Dynasty+,” looks at harried lifestyles and the effect they can have on us. The short — at only 5 minutes — is directed by Aisling Conroy; it brings us into its protagonist’s life with animation, visuals, heart, and contemplation.
Animation can have different effects. Here, it splays muted but colorful images over the screen and let us get to know its subject. A nameless woman wakes up from a night of partying to meet what we assume is her mother or grandmother. Her head hurts, and “Bardo’s” animation makes us feel visually what a hangover feels like to her. Through her eyes, we see the fast-paced, hectic world of the urban scene; this is juxtaposed smartly with the quaint, quiet actions of the older woman, who is gardening. One feels harried, and one feels calming; but the film lets us make up our minds about which is which.
Restraint is ‘Bardo’s’ Biggest Achievement
What is strong about this film, is it uses its animation wisely. It could have gone big and bold: animation lets you do anything. But it doesn’t; it keeps the visuals pleasing but muted, and its characters real and approachable. A particular scene in which the lead wakes up, her head hurting, her cell phone incessantly ringing with texts asking her to repeat another night out tonight is striking. I wonder how many of us have lived lives like that — pulled in many different directions, harried but unable to say no — that have been too much for us to handle but we’ve participated nonetheless.
But also, the short doesn’t moralize. The grandmotherly figure bestows her time spent in the dancing scene, but admits it was a different time. We see her in her youth, and the film smartly juxtaposes her quainter partner dances with the urban nightclub scene her granddaughter experiences. But what works is the whole thing is backdropped along the grandmother’s slow, methodical shifting of dirt back and forth with a spade in her garden. It’s calming; and we, as well as the protagonist, being to envision a calmer life, one in which tea, and early mornings, and gardening take the place of fast paced nightlife, oversleeping, and hangovers.
I liked this film. It’s calm and simple, effective yet soothing. It uses its animation to not only tell a story, but to make you feel its proceedings. As a result, the film washes over you like a gentle breeze. Another solid short; and at 5 minutes, a short that is well worth your time.
“Closing Dynasty+” and “Bardo” are currently doing rounds in this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.
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