Bob CollinsLost in today’s announcement of Oscar nominations was the category of documentaries, which generally are nowhere near as intriguing as the make-believe world of film.
Let’s do something about that by specifically pointing out that Joe’s Violin has been nominated in the category of “Best Documentary Short Subject.”
The documentary, which I first pointed out last October, is a testament to many things, not the least of which is the value of the arts.
It’s the story of a Holocaust survivor, Joseph Feingold, who heard an interview on his public radio station about donating musical instruments, and did so with the violin he could no longer play.
It ended up in the hands of 12-year-old Brianna, the daughter of Dominican immigrants, who goes to school in the Bronx, in the poorest congressional district in the U.S., the New Yorker noted in its September story.
There are no actors in this story, and that’s the best part. Even more so now than late last summer, when the film first got some attention, spending the next 24 minutes watching it will make your day.
