In The Confession, 9-year-old Sam worries that he doesn’t have any sins to reveal for his first confession. When he and his best friend conjure a scheme to provide one, it goes spectacularly wrong. Like 2011’s other Oscar-nominated live-action short nominees, Tanel Toom’s film demonstrates the effectiveness of narrative economy. Sam’s dilemma is rendered in close-ups of his freckled face and the confessional door creaking in his nightmares, as well as mournful long shots of empty roads stretching over rural horizons. In Michael Creagh’s The Crush, 8-year-old Ardal faces a different sort of dilemma: When he comes to believe his beloved teacher is engaged to the wrong fellow, he takes rather sensational action to save her. Meanwhile the hero in the beautifully black-and-white God of Love is technically adult, but Raymond Goodfellow (played by director Luke Matheny) is also rather perpetually naïve. Sad that the drummer in his lounge act doesn’t return his affection, he makes use of a box of love-potion darts, only to learn that true love is generous rather than self-centered. The 15-year-old cancer patient in Ian Barnes’ Wish 143 is less specific about his object of affection, hoping only to lose his virginity before he dies. As his tumor grows, he comes to understand that intimacy isn’t just sex, but a shared appreciation of simple sensual pleasures. And in the Belgian film Na Wewe, the terrible illogic of genocide is focused through a brief confrontation. In Burundi, fierce, armed Hutus pull over a taxi full of presumed Tutsis, seeking payback for previous wrongs. But as it becomes increasingly unclear how to identify individuals who are born into mixed families or unable to name their parents, as guns are waved and tensions escalate, the sides become less defined, and the mutual fears more pronounced. Like the other nominees, Ivan Goldschmidt’s short teaches a lesson, though its hand-held camera and historical allusions make it seem most urgent. —Cindy Fuchs

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Rating:	No Rating
Release Date:	February 11, 2011 (Limited)
Genre:	Program