
SUPERFEST XXVIII WINNERS
Congratulations to this year's award winners!
The following contains a list and descriptions of the
award-winners for SUPERFEST XXVIII (2008).
Superfest XXVIII Award Winners' List
Best of Festival
- Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy [40 min.] Producer: Alice Elliott & Simone Pero, U.S.
Excellence Awards
- Dragon People [24 min.] Producer: Rosa Rogers, U.K.
- Including Samuel [58 min.] Producer: Dan Habib, U.S.
Achievement Awards
- Iron Genrikh [51:41 min.] Producer: Alexey Pogrelnoy, Russia
- The Miracle [29 min.] Producer: Jeffrey Jon Smith, U.S.
- Multiple [29 min.] Producer: Lucinda Broadbent, U.K.
Merit Awards
- The Collector of Bedford Street [34 min.] Producer: Alice Elliott, U.S.
- Edges of Perception [14 min.] Producer: Eric Kutner, U.S.
- Phoenix Dance [16:22 min.] Producer: Karina Epperlein, U.S.
- Pushin' Forward [39 min.] Producer: Izumi Tanaka, U.S.
- Slide [3:52 min.] Producer: Sharon Katz, Canada
Pamela K. Walker Award
- Tiresias [8 min.] Producers: Olimpias Disability Culture Productions, U.S.
Outstanding PSA's/Promos
- PSA's: School Love and Class Photo, Producer: Guzella Nikolaishvili, Russia
- Sins Invalid: Trailer [3 min.] Producer: Patricia Berne, U.S.
Descriptions of Award Winners
(CC= CLOSED CAPTIONED; OC= OPEN CAPTIONED; AD= AUDIO DESCRIBED)
BEST OF FESTIVAL
Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy CC, AD
Producer: Alice Elliott & Simone Pero
Director: Alice Elliott
Contact: Alice Elliott [email protected]
Filmmaker Alice Elliott's powerful, yet intimate,
documentary about how seasoned disability rights
advocates, Diana Braun and Kathy Conour, pool their
abilities to keep themselves out of nursing homes and advocate
around the country for people in similar
circumstances. Devoid of the usual "talking heads"
experts and narrative exposition, "Body and Soul" is
Elliott's gritty and loving paean to the skills and
talents of these canny advocates who know how to stay
one step ahead of the bureaucracy and hold on to their
home. They know the laws, the rules, where the money
is and the power of local and national politics to help them redefine the
arguments on their own terms. This searingly honest
and profoundly moving film is a vital tool for all who
want to make the Supreme Court's Olmstead decision a
reality and redirect the automatic flow of dollars
from nursing homes to "least restricted environments"
in their states.
EXCELLENCE AWARD
Dragon People OC
Producer: Rosa Rogers
Director: Rosa Rogers
Contact: Rosa Rogers [email protected]
How are the estimated 20 million deaf children and
adults doing in China, as the world's fastest growing
economy gradually opens up educational opportunities
for all and closes down its Communist-style
protected jobs for life? How do deaf Chinese find each
other and exchange experiences when only a generation
ago they were prohibited from congregating in public?
In 2006, a (now defunct) British TV program for
deaf youth sent photographer Louise Gibson, 30, who is
also deaf, to visit families, schools and factories in
urban and rural China to get a glimpse of what's
happening. She visits a family who raise pigs to fund
their deaf son's school fees, a factory where 500 deaf
adults produce perfume, and a weekly social gathering in a Beijing
park where 200 deaf people come together. Producer
Rosa Rogers, a social issues specialist, makes sure we
never lose sight of the larger dynamics driving this
rapidly changing country.
EXCELLENCE AWARD
Including Samuel CC
Producer: Dan Habib
Director: Dan Habib
Contact: Dan Habib [email protected]
How can you achieve full inclusion for a child with a
disability? Journalist turned filmmaker Dan Habib
admits that until his son, Samuel, was born with
cerebral palsy, that question had never crossed his
mind. Together with his wife and older son, Isaiah, he
sets out to learn how to make it easier for Sam to
join in family activities, school and their community,
discovering that inclusion is an ongoing experiment
across the fields of special education, education and
disability rights. Including Samuel is the first good,
in-depth cinematic look at what is working within the
relatively new pragmatic applications of the inclusion
philosophy. Habib deftly enriches his film's landscape
with articulate experts, experienced disability rights
proponents, and diverse role models, including one woman who did
not benefit from inclusion, without ever losing focus
that the heart and soul of this story is the promise
and potential of one irrepressible child, Samuel
Habib.
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Iron Genrikh OC
Producer: Alexey Pogrelnoy
Director: Alexey Pogrelnoy
Contact: Denise Roza [email protected]
Also known as Iron Henry, this contemporary Russian
film, directed by Alexey Pogrelnoy, details the
struggles and joys of a man without legs surviving the
inhospitable environment for people with disabilities
in Soviet and now post-Soviet times. Genrikh Ivanovich
Sergeev, longtime resident of a village with (apparently)
no social services, is proud to explain how his handyman skills,
iron constitution and relentless pursuit of even
the smallest opportunity have enabled him to rise
above his circumstances and those who give up and become
"invalids". The texture of Genrikh's life becomes
clear as the struggles--depression, alcoholism,
despair and abandonment by his wife--are presented in
counterpoint with the "blue skies" --his children,
musical talents, respect as a local historian and
return of his wife.
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Miracle CC
Producers: Jeffrey Jon Smith, James Aull, Jerry Prochazka
Director: Jeffrey Jon Smith
Contact: Jeffrey Jon Smith [email protected]
This is an expanded cinematic version of performance
artist Tekki Lomnicki's theatrical piece,
Thanksgiving, exploring a mother/daughter relationship
over a 27 year arc from the daughter's point of view.
What makes it comic, tragic and unique from other
dramatizations of intergenerational conflict is that
Tekki is a little person and her mother's dream is to
take her to Lourdes for a cure. Using a Catholic
confessional as the pretext for a recap of the past, we are taken on a
journey from the streets of Chicago to the boulevards
of Paris and on to the beckoning "Disneyland for
Catholics", Lourdes. Along the way, song-filled
intervals pay homage to American musicals and classic
films. During Lomnicki's lifetime, the U.S.
disability paradigm has gradually shifted from "you
can be fixed" to "you have the right to be as you
are", and that evolution serves as the
backdrop for her enchanting tale.
ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Multiple CC
Producer: Lucinda Broadbent
Directors: Lucinda Broadbent & Alison Peebles
Contact: Nicole Kathleen Johnson [email protected]
Alison Peebles has become well-known to UK television
audiences over the last six years as a no-nonsense and
unerring Scottish detective. What is less well-known
is that in reality, the actress/director is gradually
coming to grips with the onset of multiple sclerosis.
This engaging, wit-laced documentary of a busy
professional following her dreams takes us in front of
and behind the camera, as Peebles begins to confront
the impact this condition may have on all aspects of
her life. The usual parameters of a
documentary are tweaked by the inclusion of charming
animated sequences that show Peebles' struggle to
give up her flashy, fashionable high
heels. This absorbing, sometimes sobering, look at
becoming disabled in mid-life is leavened by the charm
and humor of the protagonist who says she doesn't want
to be seen as someone with MS, but as "someone who
acts and directs and sometimes falls down."
MERIT AWARD
The Collector of Bedford Street CC, AD
Producer: Alice Elliott
Director: Alice Elliott
Contact: Alice Elliott [email protected]
From the opening scene, we are rooting for, even
identifying with 60 year old Larry Selman as he
struggles through a humiliating intelligence
test, perhaps not sure if we could "define tomorrow"
perfectly ourselves. The dilemma is that Larry most
emphatically does not want to
be labeled "retarded" but if he does too well on the
test, he will lose funding that will let him keep his
tiny Greenwich Village studio apartment and remain in
his neighborhood. Producer/director Alice
Elliott keeps us on tenterhooks for the duration of
this excellent portrayal of Larry and his dilemmas:
Will he make it? Will he find a girlfriend? Will his
neighbors pitch in? Is he really letting homeless
people sleep in his apartment? You'll enjoy finding
out the answers
and along the way, will learn about a new model for
supported living.
MERIT AWARD
Edges of Perception CC
Producer: Eric Kutner
Director: Eric Kutner
Contact: Nicole K Johnson [email protected]
This fresh, well-made documentary takes us into the 11
year old world of Jessica Perk, where we learn
about her aspirations to be a
photographer, a gymnast a runner, or President, and witness her
struggle through classes to capture everything on the
blackboard. Jessica has a rare eye condition,
Stargardt's disease, that is gradually erasing her
central vision, forcing her to depend on the edges for
perception. She insists
upon explaining her disability to classmates and
teachers, suspecting that they think she is just lazy.
Jessica will brook no pity, and it is enthralling to
be present for an encounter with one of her heroes,
Marla
Runyon, a legally blind champion runner.
Producer/director Eric Kutner
provides glimpses of a supportive family, but
unerringly lets Jessica
tell her own powerful story.
MERIT AWARD
Phoenix Dance CC
Producer: Karina Epperlein
Director: Karina Epperlein
Contact: Nicole Kathleen Johnson [email protected]
German-American director Karina Epperlein's soaring
tribute to renowned dancer Homer Avila, who, after
losing a leg and most of a hip to cancer, dedicated
himself to relearning all his best moves, and went on
to receive great critical acclaim and international
recognition. Once a professional dancer, Epperlein was
transfixed by the sight of Avila performing a pas de
deux on his remaining leg. She determined then and
there to make a film celebrating the sublime talent
and resilience of this extraordinary dancer.
Transcending formula films about transformation,
Phoenix Dance keeps the focus on dance, movement,
grace, on bodies, perfectly imperfect magnificent
form, by
showing a unique vision of seven powerful limbs--four
of a woman and three of a man--all moving towards an
artistic and powerful conclusion.
MERIT AWARD
Pushin' Forward CC
Producer: Izumi Tanaka
Director: Izumi Tanaka
Contact: Izumi Tanaka [email protected]
At 15, James Lilly was shot in the back, a consequence
of his
involvement with a Latino gang. Unfortunately, this is
not a rare
occurrence in American cities, where violence is one
of the main causes of death and disability among
adolescents and young adults, especially
males. This documentary by producer/director Izumi
Tanaka is unusual, however, for its honest look at the
retooling of James' machismo in the aftermath. Now in
a wheelchair, James decides he will just have to work
that much harder to become a good father, husband,
provider and competitor. The film is framed by James'
participation in grueling
long distance wheelchair racing, a sport or in this
case, passion that takes him far from home and helps
him redefine winning.
MERIT AWARD
Slide
Producer: Sharon Katz
Director: Sharon Katz
Contact: Sharon Katz [email protected]
A delightful short animation from Canada, illustrating
from a
toddler's point of view how alternately exhilarating
and terrifying it can be when your parents start to
"let go." The setting is a public playground, centered
on a slide; the players are a child using crutches
and his parents; and the tension is provided by the
universal childhood dance of protection vs.
independence. An impressionistic mixture of line
drawings, music and narration bring this unique and
whimsical work of art to life, only to be
filled in by the viewers' imagination.
SPIRIT AWARD
Dragon People
See "Excellence Award"
PAMELA K. WALKER AWARD
Tiresias
Producer: Olimpias Disability Culture Productions
Directors: Petra Kuppers & Sadie Wilcox
This beautifully filmed, celebratory short film
combines poetry, dance, text and music into a sensual,
compelling elegy to artistry. Directors Petra Kuppers
and Sadie Wilcox have brought about a winning
collaboration that innovatively merges the talents of
performers of diverse ages, ethnicity and body type.
OUTSTANDING P.S.A.'s/PROMOS
P.S.A's: School Love & Class Photo
Producer: Guzella Nikolaishvili
Director: Gosha Molotsov (School Love), Dmitry Pishchulin (Class Photo)
Contact: Denise Roza [email protected]
These two public service announcements are from
Russia, with love. PSA's are still rare on Russian
television and these are two examples of how the
public is being introduced to the still new concepts
of school inclusion.
Producer: Patricia Berne
Director: Jason Toussaint
Contact: Patricia Berne [email protected]
Sins Invalid: An Unshamed Claim to Beauty in the Face of Invisibility is an annual live theatre event about the intersection of disability and sexuality. This trailer was originally created for promotional purposes and captured the essence of the 2006 performance. Now it is used to bring Sins Invalid to a wider audience.
For additional information about the films and the filmmakers, please contact us
at [email protected].