All of Our Shadows is a sweet, heartwarming reminder of finding strength in community, and to be able to muster all your courage to stand up to what terrifies you the most. The sentiment is portrayed by taking the viewer into the experiences of a thirteen-year-old boy who finds it difficult to leave the house without anxiety, stressors and paranoia shadowing him wherever he goes. This fear, in turn, leads to an involuntarily self-imposed isolation from his peers, worsening his situation, and setting in motion a vicious cycle of negativity and loneliness. The film presents it all to the viewer by way of animation, marked by soft lines and flexible boundaries as images blur into one another, to conjure the reality of a world where things seem increasingly bleak every day. In this space of grimness and despair, bird-like CCTV cameras with their beady-eyed lens, and childhood icons who threaten to devour you, now acquire intimidating proportions for a scared child. The experience of school-going children and the various kinds of marginalisation and oppressions that they deal with, often a result of prejudices and judgment regarding their identity, is discussed in a simple manner without explicitly naming it. The film, however, remains unequivocal and direct in its message of finding love and support in one another to help you overcome the worst and most terrifying concerns of a person's life and existence.

All of Our Shadows | Short Film of the Day

The short film endeavours a social commentary on the contemporary state of affairs in the US, soon branching out to how the same issues plague the whole world, and all of us collectively as a society. It spares no one in its sharp approach adopted to engage with the concerns. All of these views are presented forth while being veiled as a documentary that exists within a fictive space, one which has no qualms about revealing its intentions. It declares politicians and people in positions of power vampires who have recently come forward and revealed their true identity. 

 The blood-sucking demons of fantasy and folklore, thus, now become metaphors for those who are sucking the life force of society, financially and otherwise, leaving their victims lifeless or struggling to survive. The conversation ropes in several names to support the critique - from Oscar Wilde to Noam Chomsky to Rutger Bregman, to name a few. In the process, the viewer is left with an exhaustive engagement with capitalism, economic development and its ramifications on different sections of society, debt, profit - the nature, the burden and the curse of it all. 

 Though initially it might appear that despite the declaration of several exploitative forces and individuals to be vampires, the film maintains a tone of satirical objectivity, it soon makes it clear which side of the conversation it has located itself on. Citing the French historical drama La Commune (Paris, 1871) as one of its inspirations, Vampires, They Exist?! remains simple in its approach throughout, coming across as a sincere effort, albeit in need of a little more fine-tuning on the level of narrative construction, to tell its own individual story.

Vampires, They Exist?! | Short Film Nominee

Mental health, especially in 2020, has become a topic demanding urgent attention. The short film is an endeavour to further the same conversation. By portraying the emotional isolation and the consequent mental strain it puts the protagonist under, the narrative asserts its point. Along with presenting the problem, there is also the attempt to offer a solution. Solicitude reminds the viewer to check in on their friends and loved ones from time to time, to ensure loneliness or any other emotion of the kind does not acquire overwhelming proportions for them. The film is concise and endeavours to employ brevity to set the premise, establish the crisis of the protagonist and finally conclude with a solution to avoid or fix the situation at hand, all of this being realised simply under two minutes.

Solicitude | Short Film Nominee

Educational in nature, and well-intentioned at heart, the short narrative is the first part of more instalments in a series of animation videos meant for a younger audience. At the heart of the film is a small town's fight against climate change and the rapidly growing infestation of big corporations that only serve to aggravate the former. To communicate its intention to the viewer, the narrative ropes in simple animation, environmental concerns and an interaction with religion. All of this is then intertwined with the story of a young college student, Phoebe. After ending up with a severe knee injury that has brought her career as a young athlete to an end, our protagonist finds herself returning to the unfamiliar reality of her hometown, and developments that threaten the very existence of what she remembers and cherishes the most about it.

The Protectors of the Wood | Short Film Nominee

The film puts forth an interesting premise, one about the common thread of language and culture, and its especial relevance in a world that battles the coronavirus pandemic. The narrative locates itself at the cultural and linguistic nexus of three East Asian countries, South Korea, China and Japan. In an attempt to engage with the same thematic concern deeply, it aims to map their own individual histories as well as the overlaps that exist between them. From the similarities in script to those words which are gaining more and more predominance in a post-Covid-19 world, the film conjures a sincere endeavour to share its intentions with the viewer by looking at the commonalities between the languages of these countries. It also ropes in an expert voice on the issue, employing the limited resources of a locked down world, to explore its topic further. While the film may have not achieved an adequate closure for the expectation it set at its opening for the viewer, leaving the door open for several questions, it exhibits a dedication and attempted meticulousness to deal with the various components of its subject matter.

Overcoming Obstacles Through a United Culture | Short Film Nominee

The short narrative works very hard to share its well-intentioned message with the viewer. It aims to draw your attention to the importance of doing your bit in protecting the environment and planet; the character employed for the same is a little child. Through the innocence of childhood, the story strives to remind you of the significance of every single act in working towards this cause. Even small droplets can combine to form the ocean, it wants to assert using its title. As the child sits working on assumedly a school project, a knock on the door makes him stop the activity at hand and move to attend to the visitor. It is then in his actions that the message of the whole plot lies.

Little Droplets | Short Film Nominee

The short narrative has the noble intention of spreading awareness about the lives of those who live with disability. It presents to us the many hardships and obstacles that plague them. The same is attempted by taking us into a busy morning in the life of Mrs. Gupta, a school principal who finds herself moving from one task to another at breakneck speed. 

Consequently, she doesn’t have the time for things which are not on her agenda for the day. However, this happens to be a specifically demanding day as she finds herself met with two different people, both of whom live with a disability. While one of them has arrived for a possible job position, the other wants to enroll as a student. It is in this manner that the story wants to hold a mirror to society’s inherent ableism. 

As for Mrs Gupta, who is dismissive of both of these two characters, a shocking accident in her own life makes her change her ways drastically. By showing all of this, Ek Nayee Soch, Ek Naya Nazaria shares its core message with you.

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