I don’t go about making videos with the intention of winning awards or prizes: I’m just happy to have my work selected for screening. On the other hand, it’s most gratifying when something does pick up an award. This year has seen a remarkable run – I’ve been amazed!
The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself made with Greek poet Tasos Sagris and musician Whodoes continued to do well around the world. In November, it was awarded Overall Winner – Best Poetry Film, selected from over 2000 entries for the Poetry In Motion 2023 festival in Colorado, USA. Here is a sample of what the judges said:
“The Life We Live Is Not Life Itself is hauntingly beautiful with images and words that linger long after the viewing is over. The poem is poignant and even more so when influenced by voiceover and visuals. The faces that appear throughout left me wondering if I was the watched or the watcher… Joy transforms into loneliness and lands on acceptance.” Jayme Hastings.
“With cinematic visuals, highly functional slow motion and ethereal background audio, the film was inescapable… Simple yet elegant descriptions bring together; the highs and lows of what life can be, the stark reality of Living and an insight into our shared possibilities when we recognise ourselves in others.” James W. Barnes.
The video also won awards at different editions of the International Festival of the Signs of the Night: the Jury Award for Harmony between Image, Poem and Music at the 7th Edition in Urbino, Italy, and the SIGNS Award at the 8th Edition in Berlin. Again, the judges’ comments are amazing:
“It is a beautiful tribute, between art and science, on the meaning of life and understanding the complexity of time…” Jury Award.
“… a deep reflection on the nature, conditions and limits of human life. Its experimental approach combines metaphoric visions of nature and urban life with spoken words and an emotionally absorbing flow of electronic music. The film… ultimately gives hope in the quest for personal truth, wisdom beyond illusions and loss of meaning, and contact in an anonymous society.” SIGNS Award.
An Introduction to the Theory of Eclipses, one of several videos I made from material originally created for the Adelaide Fringe Festival performance of UGLY in 2022, won Best Poetry Film at and Best Experimental Film at two different editions the 8&halFilm Awards festival in Rome.
MAGPIE, an experimental documentary video based on the songs of Australian Magpies was winner of the Kino Exceptional Award: Experimental: sound / image driven, KinoDrome: International Motion Picture & Screenplay Festival in Cleveland, Ohio, September, 2023).
and furthermore (indexed), an experimental video using text sampled from a single edition of a daily newspaper, was highly commended in the Experimental section of the 2023 Canberra Short Film Festival in November. It was runner up for the Kino Exceptional Award: Experimental: sound / image driven award at KinoDrome: International Motion Picture & Screenplay Festival in Cleveland, Ohio and gained an Honourable Mention at the Midwest Video Poetry Fest in Wisconsin in October.
Finally, The Taken Path: a durational project developed and made with Catherine Truman at the Carrick Hill estate, Adelaide, through 2022-2023, as exhibited as part of A Partnership for Uncertain Times, Newmarch Gallery, South Australia, 16 June to 15 July, 2023 was Short Listed for the prestigious The Ruby Awards 2023 – Outstanding Collaboration supported by South Australian Department of Premier & Cabinet / Arts SA, in December 2023.
I know how much work goes into curating and judging these kinds of events, as well as recognising that on another day, a different film could just have easily won one of these awards. So I am grateful to everyone concerned for the care they put into these usually thankless tasks.