This was the winner for Best Documentary Short and I don't know that it should have been. Sometimes I feel like we should be judging these films not only on technical merit and emotional impact but also on their weight in the world. What themes are more prescient? When we look back on the records of the Academy, how many times have truly ground-breaking films been ignored for status quo or feel-good pablum?None of that is to say that Learning to Skateboard is a bad film or that no one should watch it. It's a nice short about disadvantaged girls in Afghanistan being given a space to grow without fear. This is an incalculable benefit for an entire generation of young people trying to navigate a repressive society. I just don't know if it deserved to win. Also, as someone who used to read Arabic (i.e., right-to-left), realizing that the names shown were just in a Semitic-looking font just about broke my brain. It was like the worst Magic Eye picture ever.
It's currently streaming on Hulu but only with the Live TV option.
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