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Usually you can count on the Doc shorts to be fairly serious in their overall subject matter, but they kind of ratcheted up the dour scale this year with this crop (in particular with regards to Dead Kids).

The nominees are:

• All The Empty Rooms
• Armed Only With a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud
• Children No More: “Were And Are Gone”
• The Devil is Busy
• Perfectly a Strangeness

In order of preference:

5) CHILDREN NO MORE: “WERE AND ARE GONE” (Hilla Medalia and Sheila Nevins)
ONe of the reasons I rank this last is definitely because this is seriously the clunkiest title of the bunch. It makes a tad bit more sense in context, as the story unfolds following a group of Israeli individuals in Tel Aviv who hold silent protests in honor of the children who have died in the War in Gaza, with each poster of a child being held up with text reading “Was and Is No More”. It’s a lot of compelling imagery, especially in contrast to the protesting hecklers who have difficulty with engaging with the subject matter, but on the whole there ends up not being much “there” there in this short.

4) PERFECTLY A STRANGENESS (Alison McAlpine)
A zippy 15 minute doc that follows three donkeys as they make their way up to an abandoned observatory in the middle of the desert and take on a nighttime show of the universe. That’s basically it! Visually stunning desert landscapes and our silly little protagonists make for an intriguing journey as we try to figure out what the heck is going on here. It’s cute and would make a fun winner but, again, there’s not really much more here! Still thankful for a lighthearted and even optimistic short among these that made for a welcome reprieve among the other more serious candidates.

3) THE DEVIL IS BUSY (Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir)
A day in the life of the staff of an abortion clinic in Atlanta, one of the few remaining in the state and the source of reproductive health services for women all across the south who travel hundreds of miles from other states with abortion bans and restrictions. This doc focuses largely on Tracii, the head of security at the clinic, and the measures she goes through to protect patients and staff throughout the day from protesters and potential harm-doers. Tracii is an incredibly compelling protagonist and when the documentary gets away from her and focuses on some of the other staff, it’s informative but loses a little something special, in my opinion. Still, thankfully Tracii is always just around the corner to give an update on how things are going and all the hard work that is still to be done.

2) ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS (Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones)
Journalist Steve Hartmann embarks on a project to document the untouched rooms of children killed in school shootings. This is the kind of journalism project that I feel has so much merit in investing in, because thinking about what a child’s room looked like on the day they died can tell so many layers of stories. Hartmann is incredibly considerate of the families he encounters, and this story that could so easily be felt as exploitative is treated with immense kindness and respect. Some really quiet, powerful stuff, and my heart goes out to the kid especially who died leaving a bunch of Spongebob memorabilia in his room; he was so obviously a real one.

1) ARMED ONLY WITH A CAMERA: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF BRENT RENAUD (Craig Renaud and Juan Arredondo)
The story of photojournalist Brent Renaud, who spent his career documenting all manner of hot spots and conflicts around the world, only to die from a stray bullet in Ukraine. I always relish in documentaries that show an individual’s passion for their occupation, and it was clear the care which Renaud took in documenting his subjects, whether they were Central American migrants, families of deceased Iraqi civilians, or Ukrainians caught in the midst of the Russian invasion. This being directed and presented by his photojournalist brother also lends a personal touch to the film as a whole, earning its emotional ending at Renaud’s funeral.

WILL WIN: All The Empty Rooms
COULD WIN: The Devil is Busy