Shorts ProgramsProgram Running Time is 96mins
In these films, fathers, sons and apprentices are bound together by legacies of craft. From a stopmotion taxi to a pushcart cinema, from a one-of-a-kind tailor shop to a halal slaughterhouse, this outstanding selection of shorts traces the ways that history, culture and tradition are passed on by hand.
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Horn OK Please Directed By: Joel Simon United Kingdom/India | 2006 | 9mins Horn OK Please, by the Belfast animation studio Flickerpix, is a fast-paced claymation snapshot of a day in the life of a beleaguered taxi driver. A Bombay cityscape comes to stunning stop-motion life as our grumpy hero struggles to earn enough to buy a taxi of his own, but a greedy boss and a slew of colorfully rendered passengers connive to crush his dreams. |
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Tailor Made: Chinatown's Last Tailors Directed By: Leonard Lee, Marsha Newberry Canada | 2007 | 45mins In this charming documentary, brothers Bill and Jack Wong seek a successor to carry on the Chinatown business that their father started in 1913. The “Modernize” tailor shop, at one time the largest custom men’s clothier in Vancouver, may close its doors for good when the octogenarian brothers retire. As time winds down, two likely candidates emerge to take over the shop, but will either make the cut? Tailor Made is a touching chronicle of family history, post-war culture and a fading livelihood built from cloth and thread. |
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Salim Baba Directed By: Tim Sternberg USA/India | 2007 | 15mins When Salim Muhammad and his sons push his ancient cinema cart through the neighborhoods of North Kolkata (Calcutta), children come running to view the show. The films that spool through the 100-year-old hand-cranked projector are bits and pieces of Bollywood that Salim has pieced together from the cuttings of larger theaters. A car bulb provides light and a palm-reading glass serves as the lens. Suffused with gentle beauty, this eloquent documentary—which screened at Tribeca, Telluride and Sundance, and has been nominated for the 2008 Academy Awards—celebrates the excitement and wonder of cinema. |
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A Son’s Sacrifice Directed By: Yoni Brook USA | 2006 | 27mins The Muslim holiday of Qurbani is the busiest day of the year for the Queens-based halal slaughterhouse owned by Bangladeshi immigrant Riaz and his son Imran. This documentary tracks the days leading up to the holiday, as 27-year-old Imran—who grapples with his identity in the Muslim community because he is half Puerto Rican—prepares to prove to his father and his customers that he is ready to take over the family business. |
