A true highlight from Day 3 of the 2025 El Dorado Film Festival was Short Film Block #2, yet another curated collection of shorts created by inspired filmmakers from near and far. Block #2 featured an exceptional group of short films that explored a wide range of themes through various interesting genres. It was the strongest top-to-bottom block of the festival.
Here are a few impressions out of the films included in the block…
Director Sam Henderson’s astonishing “Ado” is an intensely affecting short film that uses incredibly heavy subject matter to speak to the infinite value of school teachers. As a husband to a teacher of nearly thirty years, Henderson’s film is profoundly effective and necessary. He and his co-writer Ryan Romine tell a sobering story about a middle school drama teacher named Mrs. Hopkins (Jenifer Lewis) who has her class interrupted in the most unimaginable way. It’s equal parts moving and terrifying with Henderson handling his material with seriousness and sensitivity. And while his direction is superb, the film wouldn’t be what it is without the sensational central performance from Lewis. She will leave you speechless.
VERDICT – 4.5 STARS
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The straightforward title “Em and Selma Go Griffin Hunting” pretty much sums up the story nicely. Yet to no surprise, there is a lot more going on under the surface of writer-director Alex Thompson’s thematically rich and visually captivating experience. The story is set in the 1930s but has a dark fantasy element that Thompson shrewdly uses to press his film’s deep-running themes. Selma (Pollyanna McIntosh) accompanies her daughter Em (Milly Shapiro) on a hunt to kill a dangerous griffin as part of some warped rite of passage. But Em’s reluctance puts her at odds with her mother and in danger of incurring the creature’s wrath. The film is shot in stunning black-and-white and features spectacular visual effects, all of which Thompson skillfully uses to amplify his film’s overall meaning.
VERDICT – 4.5/5
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In 1893 Cornwall, a fisherman’s wife named Betty (Beatie Edney) shocks the medical world by being the first person to cure someone of Consumption (aka Tuberculosis). A determined doctor and relative Gregory (Ali Cook, who also writes and directs) is sent to her village to investigate and potentially disprove the claims. But rather than receiving a logical medical explanation, Gregory is told a fantastical tale from Betty that’s too preposterous for him to believe. That’s a general introduction to “The Pearl Comb”, a brilliantly conceived and crafted short film that surprises at every turn. The film is strengthened by top-to-bottom stellar performances, not to mention terrific costume and production design. But it’s Cook’s audacious vision that makes “The Pearl Comb” an engaging and immersive delight.
VERDICT – 4.5/5
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Pulling inspiration in Ivan Turgenev’s 1850 Russian short story, director Sam Davis finds hope, humanity, and communion in his warm-hearted Oscar-nominated short film “The Singers”. It’s set late at night in a remote dive bar where a number of blue-collar, world-weary men bare their souls to fellow drinkers. The film features a small yet colorful batch of characters including a broke construction worker who continues to hound the other patrons for some beer money. Tired of his begging, the bartender offers him $100 and a beer if he can out-sing an elderly regular. Before long nearly everyone joins in which takes the film in a whole new smile-inducing direction. “The Singers” is currently streaming on Netflix and it shouldn’t be missed.
Keith & the Movies 