All this month we’ll be reviewing the Oscar nominees for the best animated, live-action, and documentary short films, alternating daily between categories. Check back tomorrow for the next installment.
This year’s nominees for best short documentary are no bowl of cherries: Redemption deals with people who collect recyclable cans and bottles to survive, King’s Point looks at all the lonely people at a seniors-only condominium in Florida, and Open Heart is about Rwandan children undergoing cardiac surgery. Of the ones I’ve seen, however, the most painful by far is Cynthia Wade’s Mondays at Racine. Once a month the Racine Salon de Beaute & Spa opens its doors to women being treated for cancer, most of whom are losing their hair from chemo or radiation treatment and have decided to bite the bullet and get their heads shaved. The two owners lost their mother to breast cancer in 1984 and, remembering how traumatized she was by her deteriorating appearance, decided to offer free beauty treatments to other women in her predicament.
