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I may have attended the last Dragon Festival - its future is now in doubt.
Winners for 2001 - Report by Dave Watterson
| This unusual, friendly and impressive festival wants story
movies "in which the acting of the actors / actresses is of primary importance."
It accepts amateur entries and those by film schools. I had the honour
to be one of the judging team in 2001 and can assure you that the standard
was excellent.
The Movies
Screenings began on Thursday night at 8pm in the Nova Centrum in Gent, then
ran from 9am till about 11pm on Friday and Saturday plus a few hours on Sunday
morning - so there was masses to see and enjoy. |
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| Language
The jury were fed and watered separately ... not as a snobbish privilege,
but so that we could make each meal a working one! So while we were
fed wonderful meals we discussed the movies in a mix of Flemish, English
and German. It was a delight to find that language rarely caused problems.
The movies were so good that they told their stories, no matter what
language they were in. (Many were in English or were subtitled
in English. My smattering of German helped me follow films in that
language, in Flemish and in Dutch.) My jury colleague Betty
Bouckaert, from Gent, helped with any translations needed during screenings.
In the lively discussions Piet Van Eerden of the Netherlands
made sure I missed nothing. |
| Presentations
On Sunday afternoon, while the jury debated awards, the audience enjoyed
a special presentation which celebrated the use of music in movies. This
blended into a live cabaret with dancing girls doing the can-can and eventually
dragging on stage the festival president, Wolfgang Freier. He
got the audience relaxed and smiling. Then he and Betty Bouckaert
compared the ceremonies with the help of a voice-over from the technical
section and clips from the winning films on screen.
Overseas judges were "encouraged" to say a few words about any entry on which
they had strong views. Here you see me holding forth! |
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Other Attractions
In the bar/restaurant area delegates enjoyed the same fine food and in the
odd moments when I was able to pop in there were animated conversations in
a whole range of languages and lots of laughter.
There was even more to please any movie enthusiast ... at the far end of
the restaurant was a working tv studio doing interviews with visiting movie
makers and dignitaries plus an edit suite where you could watch the daily
festival newsreel being compiled. There were also editing set-ups to
experiment with and a section for computer games. Lots of hints an
tips were freely offered and delegates had plenty of chances to try out the
kit for themselves.
Between restaurant and theatre the corridors were packed with exhibition
cases holding part of the festival president's collection of vintage cameras
- still and cine, plus some projectors. Knots of movie makers were always
to be seen peering at equipment of the type they had used in the past.
Technical
Upstairs and to one side of the main theatre was the technical centre - which
had windows directly onto the theatre and screen. Here a dedicated
team battled with VCRs, amplifiers and computers to keep the Sony video projector
in the cinema fed with appropriate images. In addition to the usual
range of tape formats they had to handle PAL, NTSC and SECAM work. There
were sponsors slides, a festival credit reel, the daily festival newsreel,
even excerpts from local television's coverage of the event to be put on
screen at the right moment. A separate computer was used to keep track
of the movies and the judges' provisional scores for them. (The final jury
discussion was guided by those scores but not bound by them.) Within
minutes of the award decisions being made a booklet listing them all was
prepared and several hundred copies prepared for handing out to delegates.
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In the cinema Christiane Surdiacourt, the energetic secretary
of the festival, introduced the films - and now and then made the jury take
a bow. She could dim our work lights to hurry us along when necessary.
Christiane spends much of the year attending festivals and persuading people
to enter their films. |
Prizes
In the main theatre the walls were lined with commercial movie posters,
life-sized cut-outs of the stars - and on the stage was a giant dragon figure,
the smaller gold dragon which is the top award and rows of prize trophies.
Most of the trophies were resin cast statues of designs by a local
artist each mounted on a stone plinth, some were resin cast medals on stands.
Many awards were sponsored so came with books, cheques, bottles of wine and
so on.
De Drake is generous with its awards - and I was loaded with trophies and
prizes to bring back for: Atta Chui whose Crying Origami won
the hearts of the jury and for Christopher Mander, whose
Perfect continues to delight at each viewing. There were certificates
to bring home and post on to Michael Slowe and to Peter Dunphy
and Daniel Glynn for Betty and Sam. (I suggested that the
broad Irish accents in this were our revenge for the Flemish dialogue with
which I struggled in others.)
THE
AWARDS
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The top film which won a Golden Dragon award and a medal donated by King
Albert II of Belgium was
Dancing
by the Let's Do It group in Spain. |
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The top film school prize of a Golden Dragon went to
Schäfchen Zählen (Counting Sheep)
by Sven Taddicken of Germany.
The film also received a special award for performance. |
|
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I was asked to bring back the certificates, awards and prizes for
the British winners. The following weekend IAC National Council was
meeting in London. Atta Chui from Cambridge was able to attend
(despite a much delayed train) and was presented with his trophies by Val
Ellis (President), Kenneth Seeger (Chairman) and Reg Lancaster
(Vice-Chairman).
Atta is currently working on a new project provisionally called
15 Minutes, in association with Ashley Bond and the Dealing With It
team, who also work in the area. It sounds intriguing. |
Dragons - Main Awards
In each of the main categories there were three awards:
| Photography: |
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Crying Origami by Atta Chui (UK)
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The Good the Bad and the Ugly by Vit Karas (Czech Republic)
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Betty and Sam by Peter Dunphy and Daniel Glynn (UK)
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| Script: |
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De smaak van wraak by Paul Lacroix, Paul Amand and Alfons Van
Den Bulck (Belgium)
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Mitta by Michel Nelis (Belgium)
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Welkom in Sancta Millennia by Tim Verschaeren (Belgium)
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| Direction: |
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Mijn eerste sjeekspeir (My First Shakespeare) by Douglas Boswell
(Belgium)
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Spätvorstellung by Stephan Lenzen (Germany)
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Clair comme le cristal by Philip Malca (France)
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| Setting: |
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Das letzte Mahl by Martin Repka (Germany)
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Das Notturno by Wladimir Popow and Alfred Lengert (Germany)
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Lo Pichon nis by Alex Van Zele (Belgium)
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| Sound: |
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De verdenking (Suspicion) by Quadriga (Netherlands)
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Berlino '38 by Gaetano Maffia (Italy)
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Grime by Tony Jacobs (Belgium)
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| Best Actors: |
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Mitta by Michel Nelis (Belgium)
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Aus dem Leben des Hernn Wanninger by Georg Divossen (Germany)
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De smaak van wraak by Paul Lacroix, Paul Amand and Alfons Van
Den Bulck (Belgium)
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| Best Actress: |
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Mitta by Michel Nelis (Belgium)
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Crying Origami by Atta Chui (UK)
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Tigra by Etienne Maes (Belgium)
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| Titles: |
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Magic Car by Magic 4 Productions (Belgium)
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Agios Petros by Axel Verbraeken (Belgium)
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Le noir et le blanc dans la folie by Jerome Classe (France)
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Special Awards
(The list I have is in Flemish so the translations are a bit hit-and-miss
... best guesses shown below.)
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I Am Not What You Want by Kit Hung from Hong Kong won a special
prize for tackling the difficult subject of teenage homosexuality in a fresh,
non-exploitative way.
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Still Got The Blues by Joachim Dollkopf & Evelyn
Goldbrünner from Germany received an award for its stylish decor.
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Tigra by Etienne Maes of Belgium won an award for illuminating
a difficult subject and "de greveneheid"
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En Ik Dan? by Wim Lammerlink of the Netherlands won a humanitarian
award.
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Perfect by Christopher Mander from UK won an award for lifting
the spirits.
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Das Notturno by Wladimir Popow and Alfred Lengert from Germany
won an award for its portrayal of an individual.
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A Fleur de Peau by Frédéric & Sébastien
Ghelfi from France won an award for "remarkable aesthetic of the subject."
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Burning Heart by Alex Schulz from Germany won a special prize
for the best dream sequence in a festival which seemed to feature dreams
and nightmares a lot.
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Awareness by Richard Dijkema from the Netherlands won
a special award for subjective camerawork.
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Über Nacht geschah ein Wunder by Günther Merz received
the President's special award.
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Barbe bleue by Jeannick & Pierre Michel & Daniël
Dartois from France got a performance award.
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Passion automatique by Bernard Pladet from Belgium won an award
for the best mime performance.
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Plus fort que l'amour by Les Frères Igosta from France
won an award for dealing with a previously taboo subject (that mentally damaged
people can love).
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Go Ahead (Parlez-vous anglais?) by Filippo Lubiato from Switzerland
won a humour award.
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Kon ik maar by Carine Schelfhout from Belgium "for the passion
in her filmmaking."
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Game Over by Peter Matthé won an award for the best
work with children.
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Crying Origami by Atta Chui from UK won a special award for
its poetic style.
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Le noir et le blanc dans la folie by Jerome Classe from France
won an award "for having filmed a true story."
"If we could get everyone in the world to close their eyes and envision
world peace for an hour, imagine how calm it would be before the looting
started."
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