The 2008 Image Awards Festival
Celebrating Vision and Excellence; An all day film festival celebrating women in media.
The festival took place March 29th, 2008
Our 2008 Image Awards Festival Awardees
Susi Walsh- Awardee
Susi Walsh is co-founder of The Center for Independent Documentary and recipient of a 2008 Image Award. "Frank.." serves as her inspiration for her career in film.
FRANK: A VIETNAM VETERAN PLOT SYNOPSIS:
Intimate, black-and-white documentary consisting of edited, close-up shots of Frank telling his war and postwar experiences, with occasional still shots of photos of Frank as a soldier and civilian. Frank relates the personal feelings he experienced as a naval officer in combat in Vietnam, and his brushes with alcohol and drug abuse after Vietnam. He also describes his struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Awardee: Natatcha Estebanez
Natatcha Estebanez is a WGBH Producer, Director & Writer.
BLUE DINER PLOT SYNOPSIS:
A Latina eager to embrace America finds her tongue is a bit more eager to betray her culture than she is in this comedy-drama with elements of both romance and satire. Elena (Lisa Vidal) is an attractive Puerto Rican immigrant who is eager to make a career for herself in business. With that in mind, Elena strives to make herself seem more "American," to the annoyance of her mother, Meche (Miriam Colon). Elena has also landed herself an Anglo fiance (Jack Mulcahy), who makes a good living selling coffins, though Elena is still attracted to her former boyfriend Tito (Jose Yenque), an artist and fellow Puerto Rican. One day, Elena's attempts to assimilate into mainstream culture begin to manifest themselves physically and psychologically when she discovers she's lost the ability to speak Spanish, her primary language for most of her life. Can Elena tear herself away from the white-bread culture she's embraced and reconnect with her roots -- and with Tito? While shot in Boston by American independent filmmakers, much of La Fonda Azul's dialogue is delivered in Spanish by a multilingual cast.
Awardees: Joyce Kulhawik and Jocelyn Glatzer.
Joyce Kulhawik is WBZ-TV Arts & Entertainment Anchor; Jocelyn Glatzer is producer of Academy Award-nominated "My Country, My Country". Both women are 2008 Image Award Recipients.
MY COUNTRY MY COUNTRY PLOT SYNOPSIS
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
Working alone in Iraq over eight months, director/cinematographer Laura Poitras creates an extraordinarily intimate portrait of Iraqis living under U.S. occupation. Her principal focus is Dr. Riyadh, an Iraqi medical doctor, father of six and Sunni political candidate. An outspoken critic of the occupation, he is equally passionate about the need to establish democracy in Iraq, arguing that Sunni participation in the January 2005 elections is essential. Yet all around him, Dr. Riyadh sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence. Dramatically interwoven into the personal journey of Dr. Riyadh is the landscape of the US military occupation, with Australian private security contractors, American journalists and the UN officials who orchestrate the elections. Unfolding like a narrative drama, MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY follows the agonizing predicament and gradual descent of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East.
************************
WIFV/NE was founded in 1981 by a small group of pioneering women working in film and video. This year marks the organization's 25th anniversary. WIFV/NE’s biannual Image Awards gala honorees included three New England women who have distinguished themselves in their fields: Dorothy Aufiero, producer of Bravo Television's Queer Eye for the Straight Guy; Carol Patton, publisher of Imagine, the publication for the Northeast's film and TV industries; and Lisa Simmons, founder of The Color of Film Collaborative in Boston and co-producer of the Roxbury Film Festival.
The biannual WIFV/NE Image Awards Gala Fundraiser honors several New England women who have demonstrated remarkable achievements in their respective film/video fields. The list of past honorees includes: Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Margaret Lazarus; directors of the Boston Jewish Film Festival Sara Rubin and Kaj Wilson; director of the LEF Foundation Lyda Kuth; actresses Brooke Adams and Lynne Adams and television chef Julia Child.
Back to top • © Women in Film & Video 2007• Design: NonprofitDesign.com
WIFV/NE, 119 Braintree Street, Suite 512, Allston, MA 02134 • (617) 987-0259 •
