Award ceremonies are so often celebrations of the more superficial aspects of filmmaking that it was refreshing to see the weightier side recognised at the One World awards on Monday night.
Host Fergal Keane told the audience at the London ceremony how encouraged he felt by the breadth of topics addressed by the nominees in the categories which spanned documentaries, articles, community film projects and websites.
In it’s twenty-first year the organisers have finally realised what a powerful role drama can play in educating, as well as entertaining. Nominees for the New Award for Drama, El Bano de Papa and Persepolis, lost out to Lebanese film, Under the Bombs. Set just 30 days after Israeli bombs began hitting the country in 2006, the film follows a mother searching for her son among the chaos. Directed by Philippe Aractingi, the film uses footage of the bombing interlaced with a harrowing story of a mother desperately searching among the ruins with the help of a sympathetic taxi driver. The judges praised the film for its immediacy, truthfulness and beautifully crafted script. Less well-known than it’s co-nominees, this prize gave the makers of Under the Bombs a much-needed acknowledgment that those who document conflict are valued for more than their contribution to the West’s news broadcasts.
Collecting his award, Aractingi said how strange it felt to be awarded for a film that captured such a tragic event. “People were dying. I’m taking this prize for the victims and those who went innocently.”
It was sobering to think that many of those who were interviewed and filmed by the people sitting down for a three-course dinner were continuing to face injustices; those suffering food shortages in Cambodia, as documented by Alex Renton in the Observer Food Monthly, winner of the popular features award, or the Ecuadorian communities destroyed by oil drilling who featured in Joe Berlinger’s Crude, winner of the international documentary award. But how heartening that instead of red carpet gossip, battle scars and passport stamps were the emblems of success.
