KSL Movie Show review: A look at the Oscar-nominated documentary shorts

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SALT LAKE CITY — The Academy Awards broadcast is coming up in a little more than a week, March 2, so I can imagine office pools are coming together in hopes of guessing the winners in each category. 

This is around the time I start getting phone calls from friends, even randos who want to get a jump on their list.

Related: KSL Movie Show: Steve’s best movies of 2024

The categories that always fluster prognosticators are the Oscar-nominated shorts, as in, animated, live-action and documentary.

I’ve only seen the shorts in the documentary arena — each as powerful as the next — so calling just one a winner will be difficult. But at least I can offer a hint to the content of each. 

Oscar-nominated documentary shorts

“Instruments of a Beating Heart” — 23 minutes

Elementary school student Ayame tries out to play drums for an upcoming school concert in Japan.

She doesn’t get it and the resulting heartbreak is, well, heartbreaking, but she tries again with the cymbals and is chosen. Now she has to deliver, but the challenge is too great until she gets encouragement from her music teacher.

Her eventual joy of success is touching and character-building.

“Incident” — 30 minutes

This entry features actual footage from a police-involved shooting of a Black man in Chicago in 2018. 

He’s just a barber going back to work, when cops notice he has a gun in his waistband, but he has a concealed carry permit.  As he tries to open his wallet, officers grab his arm, he panics, trying to escape their grasp. 

Sadly, he never gets a chance to show the permit, as he’s shot five times in the back by a patrol officer. 

Every angle is offered in real-time, including all the officers’ body cams and subsequent conversations.

It’s quite disturbing. 

“I Am Ready, Warden” — 37 minutes

John Henry Ramirez stabbed a convenience store clerk 29 times while attempting a robbery in Corpus Christi, Texas. 

He was sentenced to death, but over the years became such a different person that even the district attorney recommended his sentence be changed to life without the possibility of parole. 

The governor refused to commute the sentence.

Nothing unusual so far. However, the filmmakers track down the victim’s now-grown son, and his reaction and the assailant’s contrition is probably why this is the odds-on favorite to win this year’s Academy Award. 

Powerful doesn’t begin to describe it.  

“Death by Numbers” — 33 minutes

Samantha Fuentes survived the Parkland, Florida high school shooting where 17 classmates and staff were gunned down in 2018. 

Years later, she is tasked with testifying at the killer’s sentencing phase of the trial. 

Having watched her fellow students around her die, while she was struck in the face and leg with bullets, she recalls the horrifying moments to the judge and jury. 

But at one point, she turns directly to the young mass murderer and demands he look her in the eye, as she tells him her name and insists that he will never forget her face. 

It is one of the most eloquent, powerful efforts to take back control of her life while telling off this terrible excuse for a human being. 

“The Only Girl in the Orchestra” — 34 minutes

Orin O’Brien played the double base in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for 55 years. 

For the longest time, she was the only female allowed. 

Her story is empowering as she approaches retirement, with no interest in having any attention come her way. 

You can tell she’s such an incredible woman, who never sought the spotlight and was even embarrassed when her niece asked her to be a part of this documentary. 

Greatness needs no acclamation. This documentary short is on Netflix already. 

More from KSL Movie Show: Andy’s best movies of 2024

The KSL Movie Show with Andy Farnsworth and Steve Salles airs Fridays on KSL NewsRadio from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Follow the show on Facebook, and join The KSL Movie Show Club for exclusive perks by texting MOVIE to 57500. Message and data rates may apply. Text STOP to cancel. Message frequency varies.