For a film with a title like Bush Christmas, you won’t find many “Christmassy” motifs in this 1947 movie, which was directed by Ralph Smart. This should not come as a surprise, as in Australia where the action is set, “…Christmas comes in the middle of the summer…”. Yet, if you choose to see the film yourself or play it for a child spectator, neither of you will be disappointed.
[schema type=”movie” url=”https://theskykid.com/movies/germany-year-zero-1948/” name=”Germany Year Zero ” description=”Set in war torn Berlin after WWII, Germany Year Zero is the story of a 12-year-old boy who struggles to help his family survive.” director=”Roberto Rossellini” ]Portraying war and its impact on people does not necessarily mean that the narrative needs to involve military actions. Too frequently filmmakers opt to focus on the psychological effects of war by featuring a young child as the lead protagonist of their works. My Name is Ivan, Come and See, Savrseni Krug, and The Other Bank are just a few of the war themed films with a child in the lead role.
In the village, the peaceful village, a young girl sleeps tonight. It’s a small place called Mgarr on the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. The girl is Gaia Cauchi and she has just won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest!
She opens her eyes and recalls the final moments, the last notes of her song The Start. Once again she hears the applause from the huge audience in Kiev, and she is happy!
Watching this contest with Georgi (aka Sky Kid) we were comparing opinions, tastes and giving marks to each singer, noting that the acts were rushing by with very little in the way of biographical intros.
Preparing for the Holiday Season, I found myself choosing another Dutch film. Maria Peters’s Kruimeltje (Little Crumb) is an adaptation of a novel by popular children’s books author Chris van Abkoude. The main protagonist is an orphaned young boy (played by Ruud Feltkamp) living in Rotterdam who cruises the streets in search of adventures.
Too bad all films set in a hospital aren’t as entertaining and good-natured as Maria Peters’s Mike Says Goodbye!. The Netherlands has proven to be one of the countries that fund and release amazing family themed films that can be enjoyed by audiences of all ages.
One can always count on finding true cinematic gems from among the independent productions. My latest discovery is the short film Stick and Stones in which an 11-year-old boy, George Taylor, narrates the story of his life.
He is different from the other kids – has no friends and doesn’t really want any. George is happy on his own – an introvert, a weirdo or perhaps just a normal kid who tries to make sense of the world in his own way.
The 2007 film Joshua is one of those movies with an intriguing first set of scenes, which raises the expectations of its viewers. But alas! After those scenes the film then degenerates into a rather bland drama with a minimum amount of suspense or action.
Donovan Dustin…
If this young, versatile performer is known to you only through his music videos, you are missing the whole dimension of his talent. Mister D, as Donovan is nicknamed, has already appeared in two movies (2010, 2011) and a whole bunch of TV series. He has acted in six theater productions, done voice-overs twice, and has appeared in three commercials.
Donovan turned fourteen on September 3, 2013 and has most recently been performing at the San Diego Del Mar County Fair, where he sang Some Nights by Fun, Never Close Our Eyes by Adam Lambert and Who is Loving You by Michal Jackson. All of these clips are available on his YouTube channel.
We don’t always see all the work that is going on behind the scenes, but we do notice that an artist has improved. For example, in his musical appearances, one tends to notice the gestures and mimicry that accompany Donovan’s performances, and the better accuracy of his notes.
All that “behind the scenes” work has included the sharpening of his skills over the years by attending the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. In 2009, he went to Gary Austin‘s Improv in L.A. and has attended Phillips Performing Arts. Donovan is also studying Business Management.
From our online exchanges, I find Donovan to be a sensible young entertainer with a sense of humor, sensitive but confident in his own skills. I like his ability to motivate an audience and involve us in his singing. He loves to be in the spotlight and the focus of attention.
Watch Donovan pop up out of the audience at America’s Got Talent and blow the folks away with a portion of Who is Loving You!
Wild!
In his acting career, Donovan can boast appearances in Untold Stories of the E.R. (2006 as Dylan Smith), How I Met Your Mother (2007 as Tyler), True Jackson VP (2009-2010 as young Ryan) and Jerry’s Scary’s (2012 as Ron). He has also appeared as a guest entertainer this year in Talent Watch and L.A Live the Show.
Donovan’s best traits are his bubbly, versatile character and his social-online accessibility. He has come a long way since that first playground video recorded by his sister Dominique.
I am certain great things are in store for Mr. D and I wish him luck in landing some big time stints.
Are you listening Warner Brothers, Disney, Broadway??
For more on Donovan check out his official web-site :
Best wishes,
RJ
It’s not the first time I’ve watched and reviewed a documentary movie. If the subject matter is relevant to the site, the readers appreciate such reviews. That’s why, when I came upon the Danish short film 12 toner ned (12 Notes Down), I felt compelled to feature it on the site.
“He wants to know whose side I’m on, so he can kill me, but in order to save myself, how can I figure out whose side he’s on?”
Have you ever been in a situation when one wrong action, one wrong decision could make the difference between life and death? In the short film, Balkanika LTD, that’s exactly the situation one boy finds himself in. The quote, above, is taken from a synopsis of the film on IMDb.
A tension filled narrative and a surprising ending – those are just two of the features of the Daniele Scarpi 2013 short film. The movie tells a story of the encounter between a young Croatian boy and an adult member of the Serbian militia. In a land torn by war and ethnic cleansing, life has lost its value. No one is safe, regardless of gender, age or appearance. The boy finds himself at gunpoint and forced to play the cruel game of survival.
Balkanika LTD makes an eloquent usage of silence. The musical score is only used in the opening scene to set a mood, a technique that allows the viewer to focus more deeply and enhances the dramatic impact of the scenes.
“Dramatic” is a word not powerful enough to describe the scenes in which a young boy finds himself in a life or death situation. Giancarlo Previati and Vladik Gnata deliver credible performances in a film which largely relies on appearance for the development of its characters. It’s impossible for one to remain indifferent to the story, as one continually wonders what will be the fate of the endangered child.
Alberto Marchiori, the cinematographer of Balkanika LTD, makes extensive use of reaction shots, which would not have been as effective if it were not for the expressive performance of the film’s small cast combined with immaculate editing.
Watch the entire film below:
“It was the summer I was fourteen that I came to know The Man Without a Face.”
That’s the opening of The Man Without a Face, a book by the American novelist Isabelle Holland. Needless to say, the first person narrative won me over despite my suspicions of how credibly a woman author could address a memoir whose main protagonist is a young boy. But as I turned page after page my suspicion was replaced with appreciation.
Dry Rain is a 2008 short film starring James Le Gros and Nathan Gamble. Based on the short story Dry Rain by Pete Fromm, Dry Rain tells the story of a father who steals his son from his ex-wife and crosses the border into Canada.