Here are the awarded films at the 2009 edition of the Philadelphia Documentary & Fiction Festival.
Special Prize to Best Documentary Film
LES ENFANTS SORCIERS DE KINSHASA by EMMANUEL REITZ - France
Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. After years of civil war and millions of death among the population, poverty and desperation is running the country.
People have no more money to feed their all family. Some of them accuse one or several of their children to have the evil eye, they are considered as sorcerers. The parents charge them of all the negatives things happening in the family. The kids are sent to the pastor who has to confirm that they are bewitched. The children are then sent to a procedure of Exorcism. And after that terrible choc, they also have to leave home forever. They have no other choice than going living in the Streets. Some of them will survive with prostitution, drug dealing as many trafics of all kind. In Kinshasa, some people try to help them as Arnold. He is a street educator and spend 24 hour of his time to try to save the lifes of thèse children aged from 6 to 15.
Journey into deep former Zaïre to meet Joseph, Ruben and also Frank « Kabila », 3 among the 50000 child sorcerers of Kinshasa
Special Prize to the Best Short Film
FRIZON by JAN-EJE FERLING - Sweden
Curt 59 years old, a married, loved and respected priest with wife, children and grandchildren. He has secretly a fixation to Rita Hayworth. When alone he dresses up as "Gilda". One evening the alarm from the church starts and Curt has to rush away to check on place. Nothing has occurred but the police officer that also is his friend Björn shows up at the church and notices Curt in his dress and with make up. Björn finds out that Curt is drunk and drives him home. Björn has to report the drunken driving, but promises to be silent about Curt´s hobby. He forces Curt to burn the Gilda costume and wig on the backyard. Curt goes into a deep depression when missing his playmate Rita. His wife Anna comforts her husband and defends him when she is confronted. Life becomes more solemn and less playful for Curt, but he goes further with his work and marriage.
Awarded Category: Direction
THE MOVING TOWN by ALBERTO NACCI - Italy
THE MOVING TOWN is a picture realized inside Orio al Serio International Airport (Bergamo - Italy) that reveals unexpected "soundscapes" holding a dialogue with Alberto Nacci's original music.
Awarded Category: Screenplay
PANTOMIME by HECTOR SUÑOL BERT - Spain
TIKO, a mime, wants to discover which is his place in this complicate puzzle that is life. The mime through his performances wants to reveal the parody in which we are living.
Awarded Category: Integral Realization
SJALAR OCH MUSTASCHES by JAN-EJE FERLING - Sweden
An elder single woman search for romantic dates by answering newspaper ads, but without any success. She changes her lifestyle and sets off for a journey to adventure and new perspectives.
Actress Performance: Aimee Jennings
SO by AIMEE JENNINGS - USA
"I am not a lucky person....' A personal look into a young woman?s long awaited journey through Australia, alone.
Actor Performance: OLEGAR FEDORO
POLILLAS by PEDRO TOUCEDA - Spain
A subtle, strange and ironic "road-movie" that speaks to us about the ephemeral of the existence and the search of the happiness.
Awarded Category: Photography, Omar García
TABLE OF DELICACIES by ALDO LAUREL - Mexico
Every child as every person's living child, has a special taste for his own needed "table of delicacies".
Awarded Category: Art Direction
BREAK THE SILENCE by CAROLE DEMONGEOT - France
"I understand that I’ve already been here because I remember and I also understand the fear I feel in my belly that the process is set in motion the process of memory and the fear is amplified and everything is illuminated and it’s the trigger that occurs so much more violent and brutal than I was expecting and as poignant as expected I feel the pain throughout my body like something that installed itself without noise waiting for the trigger to be set off finally to throw itself on me and take over the slightest cells of my body which is at the moment paralyzed and blocked and sweaty so I get up and throw myself on her on her neck my hands gripping her neck with all my strength. And the world tips over."
Awarded Category: Editing
DUBAI: ONE CITY, TWO FACES by INÉS MENDÍA - Spain
Dubai, in the Middle East, is the fastest growing city in the world. Projects of artificial islands will add 1.500 new kilometres of beachfront. More than 800.000 emigrant workers come to build the new city, 80% of Dubai’s inhabitants. In addition to that, the women in black and the children as jockeys for camel racing.
The documentary shows the black side of money in Dubai, a city where too much is never enough, and the human rights are forgotten. An official video from the Tourism Department is broken into pieces to add real information and offset the propaganda.
Special Mentions
DUVIDHA by SHARAT KUMAR - India
A story of two strong willed women of two generations. Living 50 years apart (1930's and 1990's) in India, their life stories reflect the ethos of their times. While one life is socially and emotionally fulfilling, the other is tortuous.
IO PARLO ! by MARCO GIANFREDA - Italy
Bruno 12 years old, would like to be friend of Luca (25), the boyfriend of his sister Claudia, but Luca doesn't even see him. When Bruno catches him talking with another girl, he sees the chance to reach his goal.
...WE DECLINE ALL RESPONSABILITY... by LUCIENNE LANAZ - Switzerland
"La Ruine du Moujik" is an old farm house from 1590, in the Bernese Jura, which is being renovated and transformed inside.
During two years the camera observed the work carried out by craftsmen and labourers on site. The collected images, once edited, become delirious, humoristic, worrying and poetic. An experimental documentary showing a feminine and unusual perception of a building site, giving a different dimension to men’s labour and their machinery.
A film where the music and the noise of the building site replace the spoken word.
