Silverdocs: And the Doccie Goes To…
Ick. “Doccie”? Scratch that. Maybe Silverdocs doesn’t need a catchy award nickname. The doc crowd is far too earnest for such Hollywood-style hokum, anyway. Perhaps. But anything to spread the word about some of these films would be a good thing. Especially in this economy, awards can be a critical factor in whether a film gets a theatrical release, or even a DVD distribution deal. Even a producer of a sure-fire crowd-pleaser was fretting to me about the current distribution climate.
A frustration for the audience is where to find many of these intriguing films after Silverdocs. Outside of piracy, it’s unclear. I offer links to film Web sites, where available.
Anyway, Silverdocs announced its award winners for the 2009 festival. Here are some highlights from Saturday’s presentation; the full list is below.
The top award was given to a film that hadn’t even screened yet. October Country took the Sterling US Feature Award. Co-director Michael Palmieri looked stunned, or perhaps just jet-lagged, as he exclaimed, “We just got off the plane!” He then raised the award statuette overhead and cried, “Sno-Globe!” (It does look like a sno-globe.) “And a check!” ($10,000, in fact.) Palmieri thanked Sky Sitney for putting on a great event, noting that “there’s no science to running a festival, you just do it.” He added “how good it feels to be with filmmakers” (applause), then ceded the podium to filmmaking partner Donal Mosher, whose family is the film’s subject. Mosher was visibly moved as he accepted the globe.
12 Notes Down which documents a 14-year old choir performer whose voice is changing, won both the Audience Award and the Sterling Short Award. Filmmaker Andreas Koefoed, himself a former choirboy, explained that he only graduated from Danish film school last week. He quietly wondered if this would help him earn a living in documentaries.
Perhaps he should talk with Lucy Bailey, whose Mugabe and the White African took the Sterling World Feature Award. “The film has drained us financially and emotionally, and continues to do so,” she said.
Brendan Canty and Peter Gabriel’s daughter were among the judges who voted Riseup the best music documentary. Luciano Blotta’s film is about Jamaica’s electric underground reggae scene. Blotta is another of the many first-time directors this year. He had gone to Jamaica to visit a friend and — again like many others — stumbled upon his subject. A veteran of fiction films, Blotta called docs “the best medium to be working in,” adding “nothing is more gratifying and harder than documentaries.” He then declared that he will “never work in narrative again.” Big cheers from the crowd on that.
Finally, Blotta offered a dismissal to Hollywood and a rallying cry for all documentarians: “The best stories and best characters are already out there. We just have to find them.”
- Sterling US Feature Award: October Country
- Sterling World Feature Award: Mugabe and the White African
- Sterling Short Award: 12 Notes Down
- Special Jury Mention: Salt
- Music Documentary Award: Riseup
- Special Jury Mention: Soul Power (”Best James Brown footage,” said Canty.)
- Cinematic Vision Award: Old Partner
- The WITNESS Award: Good Fortune
- Writers Guild of America Documentary Screenplay Award: Off and Running
- ACE Grant Winner: Cinema Chimp
- Feature Audience Award: The Cove (I’ve been told this is coming to E Street Cinemas later this year.)
- Short Audience Award: 12 Notes Down
So, how many did you see? Do you agree? And what’s Luciano Blotta gonna do with that shiny red Gibson guitar that he also won?
