On DVD: Full Frame Documentary Shorts: Volume 5

Directed by Erin Hudson, Cindy Stillwell, Peter Jordan, Darren Hercher, Astrid Bussink, Eva Weber

While documentary feature films have a hard time finding distribution, both theatrical and DVD, documentary short films have it even harder. Thanks to the good people at Docurama and the Full Frame Film Festival, 6 documentary short films find their way to DVD.

The Films

There are 6 films included in the 5^th volume of this DVD series.

The Angelmakers by Astrid Bussink is a sneaky little film. The small Hungarian village covered in the film seems so quaint that nothing terrible could ever happen there. The residents seem peaceful and happy. But through the well executed and deceivingly calm interviews, the residents reveal that something terrible happened that they are all still dealing with. The film is a mystery that unravels slowly and each frame is enjoyable.

Afloat by Erin Hudson covers the elderly swimmers at their senior citizen center swimming pool. While the participants swim in the shallow end of the pool, they converse about the process of getting older and how you might have to grow older, but you don’t have to grow up.

Send Me Somewhere Special by Darren Hercher has an unusual premise. Hercher stands outside the unemployment office, with what is left of his savings account, and asks the first person he sees to send him to a random place so that he can make a film about it. A homeless man sends him to a remote English village and he finds some fascinating people and stories upon his arrival. While on the surface, the premise of this film shouldn’t work, it does and is an enjoyable film.

Stand Like Still Living by Peter Jordan tells the story of two people dealing with HIV in Botswana. While one waits for the results of an HIV test after falling ill, another villager waits to find out if her son Glen contracted the HIV virus after giving birth to him just a few weeks ago. This emotionally powerful film is one that cannot be missed.

The Intimacy of Strangers by Eva Weber is another film built on an unusual premise. It is constructed from the people’s public cell phone conversations. I have often thought that cell phones were the end of privacy. At least at some public pay phone booths, you can close a door. While it would seem that this would reveal some nicely salacious details revealed in private conversations, it seems to reveal that many people have some really pointless and boring conversations about nothing more than asking what the other person is doing. While it doesn’t live up the originality of the premise, it is still an interesting watch.

Finally, High Plains Winter by Cindy Stillwell is offered for your viewing pleasure. It shows the unusual sport of skijoring, in which a man or woman on skis is pulled by a horse through an obstacle course. It looks as dangerous as one might imagine.  With spectacular Montana and Idaho landscapes as a backdrop, this is an interesting film.

I thoroughly enjoyed the films offered in this collection and any fan of documentary fans should find room for not only this volume, but all the volumes, in this DVD series.

8/10

The Video

The films in this collection are offered in a variety of aspect ratios and varying levels of production value. All the transfers looked fine and I did not notice any instances of grain or artifacts.

7/10

The Audio

Just like in the Video category, the films presented range from mono, to stereo and Dolby Digital 2.0 to Dolby Digital 5.1. Again, Docurama has done everything possible to offer these films for viewing looking and sounding as good as they possibly can be expected.

7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features

Full Frame Documentary Shorts: Volume 5 is presented in a standard amaray case with artwork suited for the film presented.

The only bonus features offered are filmmaker’s biographies. So, the score is going to be low in this category.

2/10

Overall ( Not an Average) 7/10

Suzie Lackey

The Films 8/10

The Video 7/10

The Audio 7/10

The Packaging and Bonus Features 2/10

Overall (Not an Average) 7/10