SHORTS COLUMN | Jury, Audience, and Industry Buzz Agree: Docs Rocked Aspen Shortsfest 2008

Kim A. Snyder‘s 33-minute “One Bridge to the Next” was the fourth documentary to take home a prize at this year’s festival. The audience favorite focuses on a very personable doctor who practices street medicine among the homeless in Pittsburgh to great success.

A scene from Nancy Willis’ “Elegy for the Elswick Envoy.” Image courtesy of Aspen Shortsfest.

Three other buzzed-about docs fall into the fifteen-minute-or-less category. Jeff Lester‘s snowboarder piece, “Speed of Life,” effortlessly glides through its nine-minute running time.  The Sundance-winning “My Olympic Summer” by Daniel Robin covers a lot of family history in its thirteen minutes. And Stanford student Peter Jordan‘s striking portrait of a teenage female boxer, “The Champ,” knocks out viewers in only six minutes. 

On the narrative front, industry buzz about future Oscar contenders circled around “Auf der Strecke” (On the Line). Reto Caffi‘s thirty-minute Germany/Switzerland co-production about a good man who makes a bad decision enjoyed a North American debut at Aspen and walked away with the Best Student award. The mesmerizing drama had previously won the Swiss Film Prize 2008 and the Grand Prize at Clermont-Ferrand.

Two other narrative films that had heat before even screening at Aspen are the celebrity-helmed dramas. Kate Hudson‘s assured directorial debut, “Cutlass,” stacks the deck with strong performances from Virginia Madsen, Kurt Russell, and Dakota Fanning in a dual story of what parents will and won’t do for their demanding daughters. A late addition to the festival, Josh Brolin also contributed a father-daughter story, “X.” Brolin wrote, produced, and directed the sixteen-minute road movie.

At a festival known for audience-pleasing comedies, laugh-out-loud pieces were surprisingly scarce this year. Without real competition, Nash Edgerton’s “Spider” easily earned the jury nod for Best Comedy while also snagging the festival’s Hard C High-Five to Lo-Fi award. 

Adrian Sitaru‘s “Waves” also took home more than one trophy. The seventeen-minute Romanian beach-set story won Best Drama, Best Cinematography, and a Certificate of Excellence from the Los Angeles chapter of BAFTA.

The jury’s animation award went to Konstantin Bronzit‘s nine-minute romance about a restroom attendant with a secret admirer, “Lavatory Lovestory.” Another animated romance—this time between a house-bound penguin and her groveling polar bear suitor in Matthew Walker‘s four-minute “John and Karen”—garnered the Best Short Short prize.

The jury at this year’s Aspen Shortsfest consisted of “Juno” producer Daniel Dubiecki, legendary animator Bill Plympton, “You, Me, & Dupree” screenwriter Michael LeSieur, British Council Film Programmer Simona Marchegiani, and Emmy-winning writer/director Steven Schachter. 

[A full listing of all Aspen Shortsfest 2008 winners can be found on the festival’s website http://www.aspenfilm.org/index.cfm?S=1:2.]