Oscar short “Haulout” race showcases booming art form

• “Haulout” is up against four other nominations for the best documentary short film.
• Stranger at the Gate is also one of the nominees.
• Netflix’s competitors are only two of the many documentaries.

The scene in the Oscar-nominated short documentary “Haulout” where marine biologist Maxim Chakilev throws open the door of his rickety Siberian home to see 100,000 honking and heaving walruses is beautifully cinematic.

The viewer is thrust into the centre of an astounding natural display for about two minutes as the screen is filled with scurrying animals, their guttural snorts filling the soundscape.

The moment, which serves as the focal point of a 25-minute documentary about the effects of climate change on the natural world, exemplifies how short films have flourished as an art form and explains why major players like The New Yorker and Netflix are getting involved.

“Video is a very powerful medium, and right now, this is how many people get their information about the world,” Soo-Jeong Kang, executive director of programming and development at The New Yorker, told the media.

“Traditional media companies are increasingly recognizing this as both a way to reach new audiences and as a profound storytelling platform.”

Kang argued that the near-wordless “Haulout,” created by the brother-and-sister team Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva, who spent three months residing in Chakilev’s primitive hut, is precisely the caliber of high-quality content that meshes with The New Yorker’s elitist fiction and in-depth reporting.

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“It’s a purely cinematic experience, where you don’t need a spoken word to know what that story is about…an extension of that intersection between art and great journalism.”

“Haulout” is up against four other nominations for the Academy Award for the best documentary short film, and the diversity of those films shows the range of genre viewers are growing to love.

The New Yorker’s stablemate, “Stranger at the Gate,” tells the tale of a US military veteran whose service has left him scarred by hatred, but whose gracious reception at the mosque he had intended to blow up restores his humanity. Executive producing the short is Malala Yousafzai, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

“How Do You Measure a Year?” compiles conversations filmmaker Jay Rosenblatt had with his daughter every year between the ages of two and eighteen.

The delightful examination of an Indian couple’s passion for the young elephants they are in charge of is “The Elephant Whisperers” on Netflix.

The Martha Mitchell Effect, a compilation of archival videos about a woman on the periphery of the Watergate affair, is the second contender in the category for the streamer.

The Netflix competitors are only two of the many documentaries that are accessible on its site, some of which frequently ranks as its most popular offerings.

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