This is a continuation of last week’s reviews of the 2011 Oscar Nominated Shorts. Documentaries, typically much more thought provoking, much more topical and much more depressing then their narrative or animated brethren. In those areas, this group of documentary shorts does not disappoint.

Here they are:Killing In the Name

“In the last 5 years, more than 88,000 people were killed or injured in terrorist attacks worldwide. The majority of the victims were Muslims.” In Amman, Jordan on November 9, 2005, Ashraf and Nadia were celebrating their wedding when a suicide bomber walked in and killed 27 members of their wedding party including 3 of their parents. Ashraf, being a Muslim himself, narrates the doc short to speak out and show that these attacks are not a true representation of Islam. He speaks with the father of a man who drove his car into a crowded area and detonated it, killing 130 people. He speaks to men who have been convicted in bombings and to widows of men killed in bombings. The documentarians were also able to conduct an interview with the recruiter of the suicide bomber who killed all the people at Ashraf and Nadia’s wedding and although the recruiter would not speak to Ashraf directly, the recruiter did answer some of his questions. Ashraf becomes a missionary for Islam to people who are already calling themselves Muslims, reminding them that their own Koran forbids them from killing others. It goes to show how divided of a religion Islam has truly become and helps us to not lump all Muslims under the same violent umbrella.Poster Girl

Second short, also about what is happening in the Gulf. This one focuses on a small town girl, Robynn Murray, who joined the army when she was 19 and rose to the level of Sergeant before she was sent home with not only physical but psychological damage. Her upbringing was one with a military background and, though 9/11 had just occurred, she rushed into the military and was quickly shipped out to Iraq. When she came back, the once-cheerleader had post-traumatic stress and this film documents the hell that she had to live through, the hell that she had to recall, and the hell that she brought back, which may follow her for the rest of her life because she wanted to serve her country.The Warriors of Qiugang

Villagers in a remote district of central China have a giant to fight. Companies and factories pollute their air and their water. There are more people with cancer in Qiugang then anywhere else. The grain that is grown in their fields, the villagers won’t even eat. Pesticides and dyes are being pumped into rivers which now run black and lifeless affecting over 40,000 people along it’s path. Most feel too powerless to do anything about this problem, many can not read or write and live lives of squalor, but after 30 years of ruin and terror, 1801 out of the 1870 villagers have banded together to sign a petition and make a difference. What they get in return is destruction of their property and threats on their lives, but still they persevered. The documentarians filmed this village for 3 years to gather the entire story and it shows in the care that is given to a subject that is similar the world round.Strangers No More

There is a school in Tel Aviv that has children from 48 different countries as well as Jewish, Christian and Muslim together. It is called Bialik-Rogozin, a public school from Kindergarden to 12th grade. Because there are so many languages mashed together in these halls, Hebrew has become the common tongue in order to be able to communicate. To hear the stories of the children and the children’s families and how they end up here shows the vastness and the complexity of human existence. This doc holds a lot of hope, especially in contrast to all the other doc shorts. All the other stories are about people fighting and being at odds with people who have differing opinions from their own. The story of this school is the story of people from all corners of our planet living together in joy, peace and harmony.Sun Come Up

50 million people are being displaced because of global warming. Entire islands are disappearing into the ocean. On a series of islands by Paupa New Guinea, the Carteret Islanders, families who have lived on these islands for thousands of years are being relocated. Rising tides are threatening their survival, washing away their property, ruining their crops. Where will they go? Will they be able to find shelter, food, jobs when they get there? Will the people already there accept their immigration? When most of us speak of global warming it is in a flippant way, almost as a punch-line to comment on some form of odd weather. Watching this makes it much more important prescient and serious.