Superfest International Disability Film Festival

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SUPERFEST 2010 WINNERS

Congratulations to this year's award winners!

Superfest 2010 Award Winners' List


Best of Festival

Excellence Awards

Achievement Awards

Merit Awards

Pamela K. Walker Award

Emerging


Descriptions of Award Winners

(CC= CLOSED CAPTIONED; OC= OPEN CAPTIONED; AD= AUDIO DESCRIBED; M=Mature Content or Language)

BEST OF FESTIVAL
Like a Butterfly OC
Producer: Miroslaw Grubek
Director:Miroslaw Grubek
Contact: Miroslaw Grubek, [email protected]
Without gimmicks or artifice, Polish filmmaker Ewa Pieta delivers an intricate portrait, charged with brilliant moments of emotional intensity. "Like a Butterfly" tells the story of Przemek, a 23 year-old poet who spent his first 16 years of life trying frantically to communicate, get someone, anyone, to notice him. When an institution worker finally recognizes his persistent tapping and blinking as dammed up intelligence, his desperate isolation comes to an end. With training on a communication device, Przemek dives passionately into his longed for world of words, eventually earning national recognition for his poetry.

EXCELLENCE AWARD
When I'm Not Alone OC, M
Producer: Rhianon Gutierrez
Director: Rhianon Gutierrez
Contact: Rhianon Gutierrez, [email protected]
"When I’m Not Alone" is as direct and down to earth as Sam Durbin, the extraordinary ordinary man at its center. Sam’s life, like this story, is all about possibilities. He heads the consumer advisory committee for California’s Department of Developmental Services and is a published author, achievements he never imagined while institutionalized or homeless. This powerful gem, which chronicles Sam’s efforts to reclaim his life with the help of integrity house, a clubhouse to help people w/ disabilities become self-advocates, also earned the Spirit Award, given to an outstanding work by a filmmaker with a disability.

EXCELLENCE AWARD
Children of the Stars
Producer: Alexander Haase
Director: Rob Aspey
Contact: Lori Fried, [email protected]
In China, families with autistic children face hostility, discrimination, and financial ruin. Services don’t exist. One small school, Stars and Rain, on the outskirts of Beijing, offers a ray of hope. Parents travel thousands of miles with their 5 year-olds to join this intensive 11-week residential course in skills and behavior, aimed at acceptance of the child by public schools. British director, Rob Asprey, skillfully draws us into how hard it is for the "Children of the Stars" to communicate their needs or show affection. We experience frustration, glimmers of hope, the joy of a father hearing “I love you” for the first time from his son, and our hearts travel with them as they leave and head home to an uncertain future.

ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Beyond Borders OC
Producers: Fabrio Wuytack & Handicum
Director: Brecht Vanmeirhaeghe
Contact: Brecht Vanmeirhaeghe, [email protected]
In "Beyond Borders," children and adults from Iraq, Uzbekistan and Morocco immigrate to Belgium seeking much needed services or to escape oppression and war in their homelands. Director Brecht Vanmeirhaeghe introduces us to a boy with Down syndrome and his family, a mother who is developing multiple sclerosis and a young blind man determined to run a marathon. Three unique lives, one universal story.

ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Miya of the Quiet Strength
Producer: Daniel Julien
Director: Daniel Julien
Contact: Daniel Julien, [email protected]
"Miya of the Quiet Strength" was life long activist Miya Rodolfo-Sioson, who first drew national attention as the sole survivor of a campus mass shooting before moving from Iowa to Berkeley to continue her fight for human and civil rights out of the spotlight glare. Filmmaker Daniel Julien’s loving tribute captures the essence of this beloved and respected community worker and the family who supported her efforts.

ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Portrait of a Disabled Man OC, AD
Producers: Volker Schoenwiese & Bernd Thomas
Directors: Volker Schoenwiese & Bernd Thomas
Contact: Volker Schoenwiese, [email protected]
"The Portrait of a Disabled Man" is a documentary about the discovery of an unusual 400 year-old Austrian painting. The man’s body is laid out, as if for a medical examination, but his head is turned to eye the viewer and challenge our gaze. Filmmakers Volker Schoenwiese and Bernd Thomas explore views by disability scholars, activists and artists on the history and significance of the painting. Gazes at women and men with disabilities from the early modern times up until today -- how can they be interpreted scientifically and artistically? How can women and men with disabilities contribute their knowledge to this?

MERIT AWARD
The Last American Freak Show M
Producer:Richard Butchins
Director: Richard Butchins
Contact: Richard Butchins, [email protected]
Careering across America is a ramshackled old school bus, run on stolen vegetable oil, and piloted by Lowrent the Clown. Samantha X and Dylan have started their own show, starring such self-defined freaks as The Lobster Girl, The Half Woman, Dame Demure, and the Elephant Man. This motley crew of outsiders are resurrecting the dying art of the sideshow, but with attitude.

MERIT AWARD
My Friend Claude (Mon Ami Claude) OC, M
Producer:Yves Langlois
Director: Yves Langlois
Contact: Yves Langlois, [email protected]
"My Friend Claude," driven by a bluesy sound track that serves as narrative, is Canadian Yves Langlois’ unsentimental tribute to his close friend that captures his joie de vivire as he fulfils his bucket list.

MERIT AWARD
Wipe Out CC
Producer: National Film Board of Canada
Director: Lionel Goddard
Contact: Lori Fried, [email protected]
Brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability for men under the age of 35. Narrated by Olympic gold snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, "Wipe Out"" tells the story of three young men living with permanent brain damage as the result of head injuries they suffered pursuing extreme sports. Christ Dufficy, a professional snowboarder, is coming to terms with ongoing memory problems resulting from multiple concussions and a traumatic brain injury he suffered when he crashed after landing a monstrous jump for a film shoot. Jon Gocer dreamed of following in Chris's tracks until a skateboard wipe-out almost ended his life--and did wipe out most of his memory. Jon struggles to discover his new identity while having to relearn the most basic life skills.

MERIT AWARD
Far From Home OC
Producer: Elissa Moon
Director: Elissa Moon
Contact: Elissa Moon, [email protected]
"Far From Home" follows three individuals whose lives have been intertwined with San Francisco's Laguna Honda Hospital, the largest nursing home in the country. Laguna Honda serves as a public safety net for residents of varying ages and disabilities. Far from Home explores their struggle for independence, choice, and control.

MERIT AWARD
The Art of Movement OC
Producers: David & Susan Levitt Waxman
Director: David Levitt Waxman
Contact: [email protected]
David Levitt Waxman takes us inside "The Art of Movement" with the Bay Area’s world renowned AXIS Dance Company. These dancers, with and without disabilities, know full well that the audience is at first absorbed by what they perceive as different and resist seeing their performance as art, so they raise the artistic bar and push the creative envelope until they astonish audiences with their innovative moves.

PAMELA K. WALKER AWARD
White Sound OC
Producer: Sarah Tracton
Directors: Sarah Tracton
Contact: Sarah Tracton, [email protected]
Rania lip-reads conversations in a nightclub, while Phillip feels sound beneath the floor. "White Sound" is visualized through deaf and hearing-impaired observance. Filmmaker Sarah Tracton lost her hearing in her early twenties, a fact that allows her a powerful auditory memory, used in "White Sound" to explore the idea of living in a world without sound. "White Sound" is recreated in the "mind's ear."

EMERGING ARTIST AWARD
Je me Souviens: Excluded from the Montreal Subway Since 1966 OC
Producer: Laurence Parent
Director: Laurence Parent
Contact: Laurence Parent, [email protected]
Je me Souviens: Excluded from the Montreal Subway Since 1966, is Laurence Parent’s passionate and poetic expose of a long, so far futile battle for accessibility of the Montreal subway.

For additional information about the films and the filmmakers, please contact us at [email protected]


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