The Golden Bin Awards: Best Live Action Short & Best Animated Short

March 24, 2021 0 By Jeff Bulmer

Two very different meditations on societal structures

In this series based on the Oscars Deathrace series of articles I wrote for The Phoenix News over the last few years, I spotlight my personal picks for this year’s Oscars, as well as some notable snubs.

Winner – Live Action Short: Two Distant Strangers

Two Distant Strangers stars Joey Bada$$ as Carter, a black man stuck in a time loop that always ends in violent death at the hands of Officer Merk (Andrew Howard). Repeating the same five minutes endlessly, Carter tries everything to escape, avoid, and appease the relentless policeman, but fails, dying over and over again in graphic ways reminiscent of real instances of police brutality.

Using a narrative style popularized by Groundhog Day, Strangers shows the terrifying danger of racist violence, and makes clear why so many live in fear of the police. The first time Carter dies, he’s choked out by Merk after the officer questions him about a roll of dollar bills he has, and a rolled cigarette that looks like weed. The second time, he’s shot by Merk after refraining from letting the officer check his backpack. When Carter decides to stay inside instead, Merk and a group of policemen raid the apartment he’s in, killing him while shouting nearly incoherently about drugs.

As Carter approaches his 100^th time starting the day, he adapts to the events of the day. He’ll catch a bottle that his date accidentally knocks off a table when moving to the kitchen. He holds the door open for a man coming into the building the same time he leaves, before narrowly avoiding bumping into a man with a fresh coffee. In the film’s longest scene, he even convinces Merk to drive him home, engaging the policeman in conversation, with the two finally reaching what seems to be an uneasy peace.

And then he gets shot by Merk.

Strangers is dedicated to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice, and other needless casualties of police brutality. The film is pessimistic but brutally effective in its messaging. It never matters what Carter does, he will always die. Maybe not right away, maybe not even at Merk’s hands. But it will happen, and there’s no easy solution.

Honourable Mentions:

The Human Voice, The Kicksled Choir, Lucky Break

Winner – Animated Short: Opera

Opera isn’t so much an animated film as it is a concept for a visual art installation. But as animated art, Opera is one of the most fascinating pieces nominated for Animated Short in recent memory.

In Opera, a giant pyramid houses hundreds of small humans, each of whom performs a minor task rhythmically as if on a conveyor belt. The pyramid resembles a hierarchy of needs, with those at the top performing academic, political, or artistic tasks, and those at the bottom gathering resources, or distributing food.

Eventually, the actions of every character affect every other character, with a giant war breaking out and resulting in the death of everyone in the lower pyramid. Then the whole thing resets, only to eventually reach the war and reset again.

Opera is a fascinating, neutral-toned look at the world. Though several films portray the divide between people of different social classes, few achieve it as straightforwardly as Opera. Lower classes are deeper in the pyramid, and their tasks are more often necessary to their own survival. Higher society lives in the upper pyramid, performing tasks that trickle down, but are themselves rarely meaningfully affected by the actions of those at the bottom.

Every section of the pyramid is painstakingly animated, such that viewers are likely to notice something new on every viewing. More than a great thinkpiece on the cyclical nature of society, Opera is the most interesting animated short nominated for an award this year at a purely visual level.