ONE WORLD FILM FESTIVAL JURY AWARDS 2011

Criteria:
Films were assessed on the basis of their content, their ability to provoke debate and move audiences to action, and their artistic merit—cinematography, editing, sound design and music. The award went to the feature which best met these criteria, expressing timely ideas with clarity and in depth—a film of impact, of innovative and original vision upholding the spirit of the festival and its theme “Raise Your Voice”.

Best of the festival jury award:
The unanimous choice was The Pipe, a brilliant and moving account of a decade-long fight by residents of remote Rossport in County Mayo, Ireland to stand up to multinational giant Shell’s plans to exploit an offshore natural gas field by constructing a raw gas pipeline that would run through traditional fishing grounds, sensitive coastal areas and farmland. Director and cinematographer Risteard Ó Domhnaill’s first feature masterfully portrays how the project’s aggressive development has created social divisions and unrest while shoving aside the concerns about safety and disruption to livelihoods raised by local fishers, farmers and townspeople. The Pipe, named best documentary at the 2011 Irish Film and Television Awards, is an extraordinary testament to the courage of people in a small community standing up to the threats of corporate and state power.

Special jury award honourable mention:
Ruaridh Arrow’s directorial debut How to Start a Revolution, enthusiastically embraced by the festival audience, is an inspiring achievement in independent documentary filmmaking. In profiling the work of an elderly American academic, Dr. Gene Sharp, who walks with a cane and who is not a household name, Arrow vividly shows the worldwide spread of his ideas and their translation into practical means of nonviolent struggle against oppression. The film succeeds as both a personal tribute to the man and an appeal for the realization of his dream that captures a popular democratic zeitgeist of our times.