Corktown common
thursday, july 28, 2022

catch me if you can

With the short film Short Round Up

What if you could be anyone you wanted to be? Inspired by a maybe-true story, Steven Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can follows the life and crimes of charming con-man and forger Frank Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) and the dogged FBI agent tasked with tracking him down (festival mainstay Tom Hanks). Themes of performance, obsession, and the search for identity run through this entertaining, stylish caper as the frauds and impersonations escalate and the two men begin to form an unlikely bond through the thrill of the chase.

Spielberg also serves as the indirect inspiration for tonight’s short film pairing, Short Round Up. In 1983, Toronto-based filmmaker Nobu Adilman was one of hundreds of Asian boys who auditioned for the role of the sidekick Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, a role that ultimately went to then-unknown Ke Huy Quan (currently enjoying a comeback as co-lead in Everything Everywhere All at Once). Thirty years later, haunted by the spectre of possibility, Adilman did what any good documentarian would: he tracked down as many other people as he could who auditioned for the role as kids, interviewed them about their complex relationships with Ke Huy Quan’s winning performance, and gave them the chance to reprise the roles through the magic of digital special effects. The result is a hilarious, insightful, and surprisingly heart-warming short doc about the pleasures and pitfalls of race and representation in Hollywood.