This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Live Action Short, losing to The Phone Call. There will be spoilers ahead:
I'm trying to figure out just how to say what I think I need to say without saying too much and thus spoiling the short before you watch, if you haven't seen this yet. Hopefully, I'll figure it out before I submit this comment.
On the surface, this is about an itinerant photographer and his assistant during a stop in a remote village in Tibet. They're taking portrait shots of families, couples, kids and individuals in front of canvas backdrop, most of them quite mundane (in several cases, rather cheesy). The people are often given more modern attire in place of older style clothes they have. One young man, with a sullen expression on his face, refuses to take off his coat and then walks away from the backdrop altogether. This young man later comes back with a request of the photographer, to take something to a palace in Lhassa. This palace clearly has religious significance, as is made clear during one of the other photo shoots.
At one point in the short, the village mayor rides up on a motorcycle to make a couple of announcements. These announcements are more important to events in the short than they may seem. They tie one or two events together, as does the mayor's idle chat with the photographer during a shoot.
The ending of the film has one or two seemingly simple things happen which tie back in to earlier bits. But the best thing about the short for me is the fact that, once the backdrops are rolled up and stored, you see the view which was blocked-the view which is seen by the village folk regularly for much, if not all of their lives. Juxtaposed with your memories of the backdrops which were commemorated in photos, I suspect that's one point the director of the short wanted to make.
There's more going on here than you may think there is. While The Phone Call deserved to win, I can readily understand why this was nominated. This is available online for viewing and download and is well worth watching. Recommended.
I'm trying to figure out just how to say what I think I need to say without saying too much and thus spoiling the short before you watch, if you haven't seen this yet. Hopefully, I'll figure it out before I submit this comment.
On the surface, this is about an itinerant photographer and his assistant during a stop in a remote village in Tibet. They're taking portrait shots of families, couples, kids and individuals in front of canvas backdrop, most of them quite mundane (in several cases, rather cheesy). The people are often given more modern attire in place of older style clothes they have. One young man, with a sullen expression on his face, refuses to take off his coat and then walks away from the backdrop altogether. This young man later comes back with a request of the photographer, to take something to a palace in Lhassa. This palace clearly has religious significance, as is made clear during one of the other photo shoots.
At one point in the short, the village mayor rides up on a motorcycle to make a couple of announcements. These announcements are more important to events in the short than they may seem. They tie one or two events together, as does the mayor's idle chat with the photographer during a shoot.
The ending of the film has one or two seemingly simple things happen which tie back in to earlier bits. But the best thing about the short for me is the fact that, once the backdrops are rolled up and stored, you see the view which was blocked-the view which is seen by the village folk regularly for much, if not all of their lives. Juxtaposed with your memories of the backdrops which were commemorated in photos, I suspect that's one point the director of the short wanted to make.
There's more going on here than you may think there is. While The Phone Call deserved to win, I can readily understand why this was nominated. This is available online for viewing and download and is well worth watching. Recommended.
