Written and Media by Paige Lunde.
On Monday night, the Animation class taught by Professor Sharpe and the Digital Video class taught by Professor Amundson took a trip to St. Louis for a few hours. We saw the 2017 Oscar Shorts at the Tivoli Theater. The first session was the animation shorts and then the live action shorts premiered after.
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The animated shorts started off with Borrowed Time, a USA short about a guy who was going to kill himself because he felt responsible for his father’s death many years before. Next was another USA short, Piper, which was about this cute little bird finding out how to feed itself. The third short was, yet another, USA short, Pearl. Pearl was about a daughter’s journey throughout life, from childhood to adulthood. It made you think that maybe you should give your parents a break every now and then when they act all “parent-y”. The fourth short was Blind Vaysha from Canada and it was about this little girl who was born with two different colored eyes and she could see the past in her left eye and the future in her right eye. The last short was called Pear Cider and Cigarettes from Canada/UK. Pear Cider and Cigarettes was about a guy who needed a liver transplant because he drank a lot during his life and it was his friend telling the story.
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After a quick break, we went back into the theater for the live action shorts. The first one was from Hungary called Sing. Sing was about this little girl who joins the choir at her new school and her choir teacher tells her to mouth the words to the songs instead of sing and the kids get back at the teacher for that when they find out. The second one was from Spain called Timecode which was about two security guards dancers. The third one was from Denmark called Silent Nights. Silent Nights was about a homeless man who had a relationship with a volunteer at the shelter. She has him go back home after she finds out he’s married and has kids, but she doesn’t tell him that she’s pregnant with his child. The fourth one was from France called Ennemis Interieurs which was about a man who was trying to become a citizen of France and in order to do that, he had to give the names of a group of Muslim people who he used to sit and talk to. The last short was from Switzerland called La Femme et le TGV. La Femme et le TGV was about a woman who lives alone but waves at the train that passes by her house every morning and night. She starts receiving letters and packages from someone called Bruno on the train and she replies to them. At the end of the short, she races to the station to try to find out who Bruno is and ends up finding a friend in him.
The Oscar shorts were a great experience and I hope to go again next year. It was a great time, especially being a DM major, and I highly recommend going to YouTube or the actual Oscars site to watch them before voting for your favorite one.
What a great night!