SHORTS, SHORTS, SHORTS!

EVERY short we saw at Docs Ireland 2025 was impressive, touching, clever or mad (in a good way), but here, in no particular order, are our favourite 4 of the Competition shorts, and our favourite 4 of the Selection Shorts…

COMPETITION SHORTS

We Beg to Differ - Ruairi Bradley

Diffing is a modern bull fight. The drivers take their lives into their own hands all to chase a glorious feeling. However this isn’t the story of sick cars, well it is… But it’s also the story of a community in crisis. In rural areas across Ireland, there are small, often times forgotten communities, struggling with acute mental health issues. But the people from this one have found a release. In the privacy of their own paddock, they diff. With walls of remembrance to the friends they’ve lost hanging in the background, they find catharsis in the turning of the wheel. 

To be frank, this is a film that may elicit shaking heads and hand-wringing from a certain type of audience, due to the subjects and the subject matter, this sort of lack of understanding is probably a facet that feeds into the mental health crisis this community faces. However, we feel this film simply does as any good documentary should; It tells a story that doesn’t get told. And that’s all we require… That and skilful, compassionate, honest and purposeful filmmaking. It helps if it’s visually stunning as well, so this film has it all! We can’t wait to see what the makers of this film do next.

At The Bottom Of The Reen - Molly Kiely

At The Bottom of The Reen, is an extremely touching portrait of a rural community through the lens of their cultural and social hub, Buddy’s Pub. We mean no irony when we say this is an invaluable institution to a community like this, and the film tenderly follows its third-generation owner, Sinéad, as she struggles with the weight of family tradition, heritage and a local community on the brink. The film explores how Sinéad, while loving the pub, its history and the people that make up her local community, struggles with balancing her personal and family life with the demanding schedule and late hours it would require to keep the pub open seven days a week, every week, as well as the painful memories of loved ones passed that loom in the pub for her, and furthermore, the struggles with the guilt of these feelings.

This tender film is a testament to a community and to an institution. It operates without romanticised tinted glasses, and takes an honest, but still loving, look at Irish culture and tradition.

The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers - Dennis Harvey

People often bandy about the idea of an important film, this is more than that, it’s an urgent film. Dennis Harvey last year had another such film, The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp, and this is its natural follow up. It feels like direct cinema, the filmmaker has simply and spontaneously picked up a camera, and went out into the night with only the intention of showing the true situation at hand. In that way, it feels very raw.

Ireland faces a crisis. It is a crisis of misinformation, alt right populism and a politics that despises compassion. Dennis Harvey, in this film fights against such notions by nature of simply showing the truth as it happens, these people need help, they’re in danger and all they want is to be able to exist, why must that be a crime? 

No Mean City - Ross McClean

No Mean City, is an extremely stylised film that loses none of its documentary storytelling credibility along the way. It profiles three men as they go about replacing the old orange glow streetlamps with new, super bright, LED lights, in the wee small hours of the morning. The film focuses in on apprentice, Packie. He’s new to the trade and the film almost puts us in the seat beside him as we learn the methods, traditions and rhythms of the lamp lighters, old and new. The history of their work from gas to LEDs is followed across the film. It gently captures the oftentimes slow nature of the in-between periods of this work, the travelling to and fro, the smoke breaks, the coffee run, the story exchanging, it’s all captured.

This is juxtaposed by primordially strikingly beautiful footage of bonfires. There’s a shot of a collapsing bonfire, that makes Oppenheimer, look like a first year student film. No harm to first year film students. Or Christopher Nolan. This takes us back before even gas, to man’s first fascination with fire, we were still trying to bottle that natural glow in our orange lampposts, but what now, when even our street lights are technologically advanced LEDs? What does that say about the nature of life and modernity? Fuck !!! Go back !!! 

This is a film about community, history, labour, tradition and modernity- and it does all that in a tight 14 mins, without a single bad frame. Not bad ! And you can quote us on that. 

SELECTION SHORTS

The Hallaqueras - Michelle Sorriso

This film is an intimate portrait of a family completing their yearly tradition. Beautiful and moving, it felt like such an honour and privilege to be let in on this tradition through the film. Easily inviting us, as the audience in, the family on screen make us feel welcomed to be there, and the close camera work makes us feel as though we are physically there, helping out to make the hallacas. Director, Michelle Sorriso, reveals her family life through short interviews, as well as including home video footage showcasing the tradition through the years, weaving together a narrative that makes us yearn for the comfort of a home cooked meal at Christmas time. A truly special film.

One By One, The Lights Go Out - Kathy Raftery

An adaptation of Michael Harding’s brilliant article in the The Irish Times, and narrated by him, this film is a slow, gentle meditation on a shifting culture and community in Ireland. The poetic piece of writing is accompanied by slow, still and thoughtful visuals of a run down, overgrown farm, the very farm where director, Kathy Raftery, grew up, adding an extremely personal touch to the film. This comes across wonderfully, and for anyone who grew up in the countryside, the story is well-known, relatable, perfectly capturing the essence of Michael Harding’s work.

TurmOil - Daragh O’Shea

TurmOil tells the story of Amy Rose, a climate activist from Ireland who was arrested, and the events which happened after her arrest. Animated in several different styles, the film is absolutely striking, providing visuals so unique you can’t look away. Both Amy and director, Daragh O’Shea, are extremely brave for coming together to create this important film, on a topic that has become unfairly stigmatised. It’s more important than ever to exercise our right to protest, and this film does exactly that, reminding us why it is so important and how we can do it, as well as what repercussions the people brave enough to protest face.

Fishing For Life - Rab McPhee

Few films are as funny as they are relevant to the cultural zeitgeist, and this is one of them.

Here at Best Boy, we are all too familiar with the addiction of Instagram reels, so this film struck us hard. We are being slightly facetious, instant gratification is becoming a very real issue across the world, and this film masterfully explored it, as well as how to get over it. In director, Rob McPhee’s, case it was to turn to fishing, a simpler, slower way of life.

Personal, relevant and overall, hilarious, this film was perfect in every way.