BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORTS 2013

Inocente tells the story of an illegal immigrant named Inocente who is striving to succeed at her love of painting while overcoming homelessness.  This was an amazingly talented girl who has now become a legal U.S. Citizen and sold all of her paintings at her first art show (except for one she kept for herself).

Kings Point tells the story of a retirement community in Florida and the laughter and outspokenness of the elderly generation.  With the aging Baby Boomer generation, we need to be more aware of the treasure we have in our elders and this was one small step in accomplishing that.

Mondays at Racine is the story of a salon in Long Island, New York owned by sisters Rachel and Cynthia, (combing their names to create the name Racine)  who devote one Monday every month to allow cancer patients to come in and get hair cuts and other salon options for free in memory of their late Mother who passed on from Breast cancer herself.  Society needs more good stories like this one--so support your local Gilda's club!

Open Heart is the story of eight Rwandan children with rheumatic heart disease who travel to Sudan for heart surgery.  The surgery opens their hearts and opens the viewers eyes to see the advances we have made in America to defeat a treatable childhood disease and the need to send penicillin to Rwanda to help fight it worldwide.

Redemption is the story of a booming business on the streets of New York called canning.  Aluminum cans and glass bottles are worth 5 cents each and unemployed people are cleaning the streets of New York of the cans and bottles to earn some money.  It makes the viewer realize the bad economy but the determination of the American spirit to raise money legally and creatively.

These five all show real-life accounts of people overcoming adversity in a brief 39-40 minutes.  These five movies are all equally as good and deserving of their nomination but I have to give my thumbs up for Mondays at Racine in honor of my friends and family some who have lost and some who have fought and are winning their own battles against cancer!