Oscar season is coming up, and the shortlists have been released. We are starting early with our reviews of one of our favorite categories, the documentary shorts! Click on the heading link to watch the films.

We Were The Scenery

Available at no charge currently on Vimeo. This film contains subtitles. Written by their daughter, this short film, 15 minutes, Cathy Linh Che follows the story of her parents on their journey from Vietnam to the Philippines, and finally to America. Hoa Thi Che and Hue Nguyen Che set out as refugees on a boat to escape during the Vietnam War with America. Upon arrival, they stayed at a Red Cross refugee camp for 11 months. During this time, the Red Cross arranged for the refugees to act as paid extras in Francis Ford Coppola’s film, Apocalypse Now.

The scenery, from Vietnam to the Philippines, is lush and tropical. I am often amazed by refugees, as many have experienced great hardships in the past but look on life with little complaint and the desire to make and enjoy happy times in the present. While they weren’t given a choice to participate in the film or not, Cathy Linh Che’s parents recall it being an interesting and somewhat fun experience.

I absolutely enjoyed this film, from the cinematography, to seeing a snapshot of someone else’s life so much different than my own.

Rovina’s Choice

Rovina’s Choice is available for free on The New Yorker, or their YouTube channel, linked above, and is just over 22 minutes. It includes subtitles.

Rovina Naboi and her children live in the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya with 300,000 other people who have fled from the horrors of war in South Sudan. Places like the camp in Kakuma received food and medical aid from the USAID program, which ended early last year (2025). These cuts now only provide for one meal a day at most in refugee camps. Rovina’s 15 month old daughter Jane suffered from malnutrition and became ill. Rovina took Jane 15 kilometers (just over seven miles) to Clinic 7 for emergency medical care. There are five doctors at Clinic 7, to provide medical care for all 300,000 refugees. Rovina’s remaining children stayed behind alone at the camp where they had no access to food. Rovina was faced with the decision to stay with Jane at the clinic until she was better and have her other children starve, or risk Jane’s life to return to the camp. She strapped Jane on her back and walked the 15 kilometers back to the camp, and Jane died the following morning.

In addition to malnutrition causing disease, loss of funding for USAID will contribute to more problems over time. There will be no vaccines to prevent disease, and there will be a loss of control over HIV and tuberculosis. Jane’s death will be just one of thousands or hundreds of thousands to come. Rovina and Jane are the face of the executive order to shut down USAID.

Last Days on Lake Trinity

This short doc, from The New Yorker and free on their website or their YouTube channel, is 30 minutes long, and features three residents of the Lakeside Park Estates in Hollywood Florida as they prepare to move from the trailer park that they have called home for years. Their future is uncertain.

In March 2022, residents at Lakeside Park Estates were given notice that the land their trailers sat on, owned by the Christian broadcast network Trinity Broadcast Network, had been sold to build and house warehouses. Residents owned their trailers and paid a low lot rent; the new warehouses that would be located on the land would undoubtedly bring in a lot more money. Most of the trailers were too old or in too poor of shape to be moved and were demolished. The majority of the residents couldn’t afford local apartment rent in their area. One of the residents, exhibiting the first signs of dementia, would be forced to leave her cat behind.

In a country where the biggest payout is always chosen, even “Christian” businesses like Trinity will sell out the poor. As places like Lakeside Park Estates, or large public housing complexes across the nation, disappear, the residents lose more than just their homes. They lose their sense of community, their independence, and their personhood.

Cashing Out

Another fantastic free documentary from The New Yorker, again available on their website or their YouTube channel, this short doc is 39 minutes.

In the 1980s with the AIDS crisis, individuals nearing death were faced with not having money to either do the things they wanted or to provide for them the care they needed. In came the advent of viatical settlements, a plan where investors would “buy” the life insurance policies’ future benefits and give cash immediately to the individual facing this terrible diagnosis. Were viatical settlements ghoulish, or helpful? Not everyone had money to afford life insurance policies while they were healthy, so what was their option? The HIV viatical settlements became a losing investment with the advent of HIV combination therapy and life extension for those with the disease.

Watching this short doc, I was immediately reminded of Star Trek DS9 episode from June 1996, “Body Parts”. Quark receives a fatal diagnosis, and in the Ferengi tradition, offers the future sales of discs of his desiccated corpse. He then receives word that the diagnosis was in error, and he won’t die; fellow Ferengi Brunt had purchased the futures and arrived to collect his purchase.

This documentary also reminds me of the horror of the AIDS epidemic, and how the homophobia of the American government contributed to deaths of more individuals than the Vietnam War.

All the Empty Rooms

This one, 35 minutes, is currently available with a Netflix subscription. It is a haunting piece showcasing four bedrooms, preserved in time, from victims of school shootings. The journalist and photographer speak with the parents and siblings of those who were killed, and give us a small glimpse into the lives lost by examining the remains of their lives and personalities.

This film is not sensational, and not a typical telling of what happens when we as a country fail our children in favor of “2nd amendment rights” for all. The film is somber, and quiet, and heavy.

Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud

This short doc is available with subscription to HBOMax and clocks in at 39 minutes.

Brent Renaud was a photojournalist with the New York Times, when he and other journalists were ambushed and killed by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. This documentary shares Brent’s life, how he came to be in these war-torn locations throughout the world giving a voice to those who would otherwise not have one, through his own work and the words of his family.

The documentary notes “journalism has become one of the world’s most dangerous professions.” It shouldn’t have to be that way. This is yet another reason why I firmly believe the United States must stand up to Russia and defend Ukraine. This film is a gut punch, and made me cry. Well worth the watch, and worth seeking out Brent Renaud’s other work.

Chasing Time

This short doc is currently available for free on the PBS website and is 25 minutes. It is, as the note at the end, about the legacy of the ice and our legacy of what we’ve done to our planet. In 2007, the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) was started. Photographer James Balog documented the glaciers through the years, a physical capture of their death and a view of change through time. Ice is a manifestation of climate change.

For Balog and others, the spiritual essence of the landscape, of the ice, is a connecting point for all human kind. At the same time he faces the extinction of the ice, he faces his own mortality. His next project, a citizen-lead joint photographic collective documentation of Iceland, will record whether we have succeeded or failed in our stewardship of the planet. Can one person make a difference? Yes. Through inspiration, one person can change the hearts and minds of others.

Classroom 4

This short doc is also available for free on the PBS website. It is 38 minutes long.

Professor Reiko Hillyer teaches course “The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States” at a prison in Portland, Oregon through the International Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Classmates consist of 15 college students (the outs) and 15 inmates (the ins). Through the semester, students read, write, and discuss the curriculum while openly sharing their feelings and opinions.

The US holds the world’s highest incarceration rate, with nearly one percent of our population locked up. In most cases, inmates aren’t given access to training, education, or mental health care that would help them avoid recidivism.

The Devil is Busy

This short doc, available with a subscription to HBOMax, is 32 minutes. It is a sobering look into the daily life of Tracii, who runs security for the Feminist Women’s Health Clinic in Georgia, and the other individuals who help her provide needed health care for women after the overturning of Roe vs. Wade.

This film was produced by Soledad O’Brien’s studio, and without her and HBOMax, I’m not sure that a film like this could or would be made in today’s political climate. It is unreal to me that women have fewer rights now than they did when I was younger.

Other Films

These other films are on the shortlist, but I have not yet had the chance to view them. Oscar nominations are out January 22, 2026, so if any of these are nominated there is the chance they will become available for streaming. You can catch my full Oscar review here on catobear.com closer to the March awards show!

“All the Walls Came Down” – not yet available for streaming

“Bad Hostage” – not yet available for streaming

“Chasing Time” – Apple TV (I don’t currently have a subscription)

“Children No More: “Were and Are Gone” – not yet available for streaming

“Heartbeat” – not yet available for streaming

“On Healing Land, Birds Perch” – not yet available for streaming

“Perfectly a Strangeness” – not yet available for streaming