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FT/V52
IAC RUNNERS-UP : MOVIE 1989
A selection of successful entries in the annual IAC International Film and
Video Competition, premiered in mini-cinemas March 31-April 1, 1989, at the
Royal Horseguards Hotel, London, as part of the movie 89 weekend.
| 1. |
SAVE THE WORLD
Woodmill High School (Dumfermline)
Pollution is making children ill and acid rain is killing the crops. What
is the solution? The giant, an expert gardener, is called in to save the
situation by spreading the Green message. . . Made by 12-year-olds with learning
difficulties, this grew out of an environmental project under the guidance
of Jessica Langford - co-ordinator of animation for Edinburgh's Film Workshop
Trust, which teaches and offers facilities to independent animators in Scotland.
It was a joint prize-winner in BBC TV's 1988 Showreel Competition.
Transfer from 16mm film.
IAC Silver Seal (Junior) 1989 |
Animation/
Message
3.mins |
|
| 2. |
IN A POSITION TO HELP
Karen Snyder (London)
An animated sequence sets the scene on the outskirts of a major American
city. A girl (Victoria Wetz) has her bag snatched by a youngster on a bicycle,
who after rifling the contents throws it into a nearby scrapyard. While
retrieving it she meets a strange young man (Roman Denis) who lives there.
He has a bizarre obsession and asks for her help. . . Photography: Roger
Schmitz; original music: Willie Murphy.
Transfer from 16mm film.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Story
27.mins |
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| 3. |
BACK-A-YARD ON A SUNDAY
Cliff Moustache (Norway)
Papa Joe, an immigrant worker in Norway, longs to return to his homeland.
His daydream of being back there on a Sunday gives him the strength to survive
in a society of sky-high costs and unemployment.
Transfer from 16mm film.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Story
b&w
8.mins |
|
| 4. |
FLOATING ON AIR
Phoenix Film Unit (Essex)
Instructors Mark and Fran introduce a group to their one-day course at the
Capital School of Parachuting, concluding with the breathtaking jump itself.
Transfer from super 8 film.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Documentary
12.mins |
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| 5. |
KNOCKING ON ARMAGEDDON'S DOOR
University of Southern California (USA)
An intriguing insight into the individualistic world of the new 'survivalist'
whose object is to be able to exist after the world-wide collapse of
civilisation. "This will be the most stimulating event in the history of
our planet," says survivalist author Kurt Saxon, who lives in Harrison, Arkansas,
close to a US military base. "Those with the fortitude and foresight who
survive it will have really done something!" The film also takes us into
survivalist consultant Ron Hood's underground shelter, shows groups playing
war exercises, known as the Survival Game, and visits Nancy and Morris Litwack
at their Survival Store in Los Angeles.
Transfer from 16mm film.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Documentary
25.mins |
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| 6. |
ZINAL CONNEXION
Objectif Super 8 (Switzerland)
Directed by Jean-Daniel Carrard and featuring hang-gliders Philippe Briod,
Christian Court and Claude Soulier in a tongue-in-cheek, but spectacular
and exciting, chase amid the snow-bound Swiss Alps to get back a stolen
propulsion system which aids downhill skiing. Despite the name of the group,
this was shot on 16mm film and transferred from that gauge.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Visual
13.mins |
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| 7. |
FIGHTING
Günther Haller (Italy)
The introduction of a handicapped person into everyday life could be compared
with the preparations for a battle which has got to be won. Roland, too,
is fighting; fighting for a better future and to be more like his fellow
men.
Transfer from super 8 film.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Documentary
17.mins |
|
| 8. |
OUT OF THE BLUE
Andrew David Hopkins (Devon)
In June 1986, the author of this film was interviewed by the Nottinghamshire
Serious Crime Squad about the abduction, sexual assault and murder of a
ten-year-old girl in March of the same year. His script is based upon a
transcript of that interview. The maker is a BA (Hons) and a Creative Arts
student. Shot on video 8 with a short insert of super 8 film.
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Story
b&w
14.mins |
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| 9. |
COFFEE-COLOURED CHILDREN
Ngozi A. Onwurah (London)
This is about the director's own traumatic childhood growing up in the North
of England in an area where there were no other black children. She and her
sister had a white mother and an absent, black father and struggled to make
sense of their skin colour. The film concentrates on the hurt, confusion
and damage to their young minds caused by a social culture that rejected
them and the personal racism which they encountered. Made in 1988 at the
St. Martin's School of Art. Ngozi is now a professional director and runs
her own company making feature documentaries for cinema and television.
Transfer from 16mm film (includes footage blown-up from super 8 film).
IAC Gold Seal 1989 |
Documentary
16.mins |
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| 10. |
LIVES IN THE BALANCE
Pig Productions (Coventry)
A follow-up to their first video production, T.V. Love (available as lib.
no: V 33), the pupils of Sidney Stringer School have drawn on a story by
Tom Godwin entitled The Cold Equations, set in the near future. A
lone astronaut, Roger, is on his way to Earth from distant Aeturnus to try
to save Man from the pollution, racial intolerance and the destructive use
of resources that have brought the planet to the verge of extinction. Roger's
spacecraft has only enough fuel for one, so finding that he has an additional
passenger, a stowaway, confronts him with a deadly decision. It's all a question
of balance. . .
IAC Silver Seal, Best Junior Award 1989 |
SF story
10.mins |
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| 11. |
LIVE MANNEQUINS
Class Collective Productions (Staffs)
An allegorical drama about life in a fixed environment; the action all takes
place in a corridor with three doors, one to the left, one to the right and
one in the middle. A young man enters one of the rooms off the corridor to
try to find out more about himself through being on his own, but he cannot
escape the strange, repetitive madness of the sounds all around him and the
characters he meets continually in the corridor. He realises he must break
out of the situation, but his curiosity traps him there and he becomes a
routine part of it like the others.
IAC Gold Seal, Best Youth Award 1989 |
Visual
16.mins |
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| 12. |
A DOG'S LIFE
John and the Meanies (Surrey)
With their previous comedy, I Wanna Be a Bidet (see lib. no: V 23),
this group used an inanimate basin as the subject of their pop video; here,
the heroine's dog, Fluff, is just as immobile - in fact, it is stuffed, even
though she treats it as if it is alive and well. Set as an old-time melodrama,
complete with Our Hero to save the day when the villain of the piece (in
this case the dastardly Dog Catcher) comes along, the Meanies still find
an opportunity for a colourful musical interlude featuring their latest pop
song Dead Puppies Aren't Much Fun!.
UNSUITABLE FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
IAC Silver Seal 1989n. |
Humour/
music video
b&w/col
12.mins |
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Price: £4.00 Total running time VHS 174 mins.
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