Mon 1 Dec 2008
Filed under: International,News
Anders Ostergaard’s “Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country” took top prize at the Intl. Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, the world’s top event for docu features.
The pic, which describes the work of a group of citizen reporters who secretly filmed the uprising against the military dictatorship in Burma in September 2007, also picked up the fest’s Movies that Matter human rights prize at a ceremony Saturday night.
A special jury award went to German team Rick Minnich and Matthew Sweetwood for “Forgetting Dad,” about the sudden memory loss suffered by Minnich’s father.
Kudos for medium-length docu went to Dutch helmer Aliona van der Horst, whose “Boris Ryzhy” explores the life of a little-known Russian poet.
A special jury award in this category went to Ibtisam Mara’ana for “Lady Kul el Arab,” about a beauty pageant for Arab women in Israel.
Canada’s “RiP – A Remix Manifesto” by Brett Gaylor won the audience award with its argument against penalizing people who cross copyright boundaries to make music.
Fest organizers report a 9% rise in visitor numbers compared with last year, with at least 157,500 tickets sold. However, international guests attending fell from 2,700 to 2,469.