My Nephew Emmett

The theme of Kevin Wilson Jr's Oscar-nominated short is all too familiar - a young black man in Mississippi falling foul of white locals in the most brutal way. Based on the true story of Emmett Till (Joshua Wright) and his Uncle Mose Wright (LB Williams), in 1955, the writer/director achieves impressively high production values for his short and is clearly a man who knows how to surround himself with additional talent.

The Fifties are well evoked, with excellent production design from Mark A Terry, elegantly setting the scene as Wilson gradually builds the mood, a conversation at the water pump bringing with it a trickle of dread that steadily grows through the rest of the film.

Cinematographer Laura Valladao has a good eye for lighting, whether she is capturing the honeyed glow of the magic hour, the pools of amber light thrown by lamps in the house or the deep blues of the night reflected on skin. Her CV seems mostly to consist of shorts and TV shows at the moment, but she is a name to look out for.

The main restriction here is enforced by the film's length, with such a lot being fit into a short space, but if another five or ten minutes would be welcome to flesh out the story more, Wilson succeeds on an emotional level and, in particular, when considering the complicity of those who might otherwise view themselves as mere 'bystanders' to violence.