09-08-2010

Indie and documentary films triumph at TWO RIVERSIDES

By Katarzyna Grynienko

    Six short and long feature productions were awarded at the Film and Art Festival TWO RIVERSIDES.

    The Audience Poll was dominated by documentary films, with Shadow Play: The Making of Anton Corbijn in the first place winning the average of 4.8 of the votes. The music documentary directed by Josh Whiteman is an intimate film portrait of a photographer and music video director Anton Corbijn , which was presented in the "Music. My Love section" of the festival. The second prize ( 4.57 average of votes) was won by a controversial documentary Waste Land directed by Lucy Walker awarded by the audience during Sundance (www.festival.sundance.org ) and Berlin ( www.berlinale.de) film festivals. The film depicts people living in Jim Gramacho - the biggest waste land in the world placed outside of Rio de Janeiro. The third prize the audience at Two Riversides assigned to Kawasaki's Rose (4.69), a new fil directed by Jan Hřebejk which was the closing title of the festival. Kawasaki's Rose is a dark comedy where long kept secrets are destroying the romantic notion of an ideal love.

    The Audience Poll included feature films with over 60 minutes of length, which did not yet have their Polish premiere and were produced during the last two years. They were presented in the "World Under Canvas", "Documentary "and "Music, My Love" sections of the festival, as well as retrospective and special sections. The Kawasaki's Rose had already found a Polish distributor ITI Cinema (www.iticinema.com.pl) and will premiere in Poland on the 3rd of September 2010.

    The Independent School and Amateur Short Films Competition was judged by 20 members of an independent jury chosen from the festival's audience with a guideline that they should come from outside of the film industry. This year the Main Prize of 3 000 PLN ( EUR 1 000 ) was given to Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark Room, an independent film directed by Kuba Czekaj awarded by the jury for the mature point of view, magical set design and excellent realization of his project. It is a moving story about the relationship between 11-year-old Lata and her father, whom she gets to know better while preparing a special song for the school's Father's Day Academy. Two Distinction Prizes of 1 000 PLN were given to 8 Stories That Hadn't Changed The World by Ivo Krankowski and Tommorow I'll Be Gone directed by Julia Kolberger. The awards in the Independent School and Amateur Short Films Competition were funded by BGŻ Bank (www.bgz.pl).

    Official site of the TWO RIVERSIDES festival : www.dwabrzegi.pl