“Red Gold” Wins Big At Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

By Courtney Lowery, 2-19-09

The Big Sky Documentary Film Festival tonight announced its award winners and set the schedule for encore screenings of each film, which happen Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The winners include:

Best Feature: Rough Aunties by Kim Longinotto
Artistic Vision: In A Dream by Jeremiah Zagar

Best Short: Bronx Princess by Musa Syeed & Yoni Brook
Artistic Vision: The First Kid to Learn English From Mexico by Peter Jordan

Best MiniDoc: Jennifer by Stewart Copeland
Artistic Vision: The Secret Life of Beards by Melanie Levy

Big Sky Award: Red Gold by Travis Rummel & Ben Knight

Programmer’s Choice Awards
Best Editing: Crude by Joe Berlinger
Best Cinematography: Ashes of American Flags by Brendan Canty & Christoph Green
Best Music Doc: The Choir by Michael Davie

Award Screening Schedule

Fri. Feb 20, 2009 at 7 pm - In A Dream, Jennifer & The Secret Life of Beards
Sat. Feb 21, 2009 at 7 pm - Red Gold; Bronx Princess; The First Kid to Learn English From Mexico,
Sun. Feb 22, 2009 at 8 pm - The Choir & Rough Aunties

From the festival announcement:

Thanks go to the distinguished nine-member Festival Jury whose members selected the 2007 award winners:

Documentary Feature Jury:
Dawn Smallman (Ridin’ & Rhymin’), Richard Beer (Film Action Oregon/ Hollywood Theatre, Portland) , Brett Ingram (Monster Road, Rocaterrania)

About the Best Feature Awards, the jury said, “We chose to award this film Best Documentary Feature because the bravery of the film’s characters is mirrored by the unflinching courage of the filmmaker’s vision. In Rough Aunties, Director Kim Longinotto’s camera elegantly captures compassion and humanity in a brutal world.

We chose to award this film the Artistic Vision Award because of its seamless integration of style and content. Director Jeremiah Zagar’s cinematic artistry equals the stunning artwork created by his father, the primary subject of In A Dream.”

Best Documentary Short Jury:
Mike Bonfiglio (Crude, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster), Kristen Fitzpatrick (Women Make Movies)

About The First Kid to Learn English From Mexico, the jury said The Artistic Vision Award goes to a film that manages to say a great deal about a number of subjects in a very short time and with extraordinary storytelling, sound and images. This beautifully-crafted, lyrical, almost impressionistic work shows the world of a fascinating individual through his own eyes, as well as those of the world around him. It was difficult to decide which of the two awards this film deserved most, but the more we thought about the phrase, “artistic vision,” the easier it was to figure out.

Best MiniDoc Jury
Joe Beringer (Crude, Brother’s Keeper), Brendan Canty (Ashes of American Flags)

Big Sky Award Jury:
Chris White (POV), Anna Rau (Montana PBS)

The programmers of the festival also awarded three special awards to film which exemplified the artistic spirit of nonfiction filmmaking. The films were selected from the 143 selections in this year’s festival.

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