Hot Docs this year has a shorts programme they call Birds of a Feather, about lone wolves looking for their packs. These shorts show that communities are difficult to come by due to barriers, but if one builds it, it will come.

Building communities is difficult even if individuals potentially comprising them are quite likeable. For example, the main subject in 0004ngel. The titular subject, Angel Vargas, works out in jeans, preparing to dance at a club, far away from his old country. Some of the framing is is slightly suspect, specially the score that feels stereo-typically sad in depicting sex work. In fairness, the short shows the shocking realities that come with any front facing job that has high expectations.

Also screening as part of the programme is Germanine Le Charpentier’s MANDZARSOA, capturing Mayotte. Mayotte is a French territory in the Indian Ocean, susceptible to constant cyclones that turn houses into rubble. The short depicts that devastation through film on full screen, maybe a it too sparingly and without context. Yet it shows resilience through the animals and nature recovering, living off the land, and rebuilding their homes.

Elena Escalante’s Elephant Families, strangely enough, reminds me of SNL UK‘s British Pub in Ibiza sketch. But this short is the reverse of that sketch where we see British construction sites and Spanish voice-overs. These voice-overs tell the history of the Elephant and Castle neighbourhood in London, an enclave for the city’s Latino community. It can do more to be fully immersive, but for the most part, I like the short’s impressionistic storytelling. Yes, maybe there’s a fuller version of this, but I like what I see here. I also can’t help but laugh at E&F being a gaybourhood now.

A whale brings a journalist and a coastal community in Oh Whale, mixing its cinematic elements well enough. That includes the usual suspects – animation, archive footage, and interviews taking viewers back to 1970s Oregon. Within that decade, a beached dead whale found itself in Florence, Oregon, a story assigned to Paul Linnman. The city decided that the only way to dispose of the whale is to blow it up, and people still watch that video. Back to the short’s elements, interviews comprise 40% of this, effectively showing that this is a communal story. This communal, poppy, and sensitive approach is probably why this short is my favorite one of the programme.

Community is also a big element in The Baker’s Hotline, which interviews the baking experts helping callers out, frequent or otherwise. These experts and specialists tell the viewers when things get busy for them, basically the holidays when people bake slightly more. Directors Dave and Emily Schuman also capture the lives of those frequent callers, showing them their meticulous baking processes. What we get in here is effective, intimate, and simple (complimentary) film making depicting Americans staying connected.

The last short in this programme is My Body Goes To Work, about Neveah May, admitting to being dramatic. Arguably, she has every right to because of her many lines of work, including being a doula and sex work. Just like the other shorts in this programme, this is very interview heavy, but the interviews are insightful. I also like that the climax here has May with her partner, someone to rely on as she does important work.