Director Limor Pashow, Israel, has won the IAWRT Awards of Excellence for the best television documentary 2011 “Melissa, Mom and Me”.
The Jury´s Remarks:
The documentary addresses the theme of sex work in an intimate and original way. The director weaves home video footage taken by Yael, one of the main protagonists, along with an intimate observational documentary approach. The result is an original and compassionate look at two women who became intimate while working as strippers seven years earlier. The film explores these women's relationships to their families and the psychological factors that contributed to their entry into the sex industry. Rather than feeling like voyeurs, the audience is drawn into a process where the protagonists use the documentary to reflect on and to make sense of their past.
Limor Pinhasov is a well-known and favoured documentary filmmakers in Israel. Her films always center on the world beyond the façade, trying to understand and complete the missing pieces in the true story behind the false impressions. Her subject matters are always strong women who deal with women's issues and are in constant internal struggle between independence, self-fulfillment and motherhood. Her films has won international awards, and been screened on many international film festivals.
Diplomas of Honorable Mention were given to three film directors:
Amanda Pope, USA, for “The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club”.
This is a fun-filled documentary profile of one of the most colorful and accomplished female pilots of the early 20th Century. Florence ''Pancho'' Barnes. was the first female stunt pilot in Hollywood in 1929 and shattered Amelia Earhart's air speed record in 1930.
Amanda Pope has an extensive background in writing, producing, directing and editing documentary, dramatic, and advocacy programs.
Kinga Woloszyn Swierk, Poland, for “Girls at Auschwitz – Poland”.
The documentary tells the story of the life for women in the concentration camp and the specific sexual crimes committed against the women prisoners of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Kinga Wołoszyn-Świerk is a journalist, a documentary maker and an associate of Polish Television Plc Centre in Wrocław.
Nefise Ozkal Lorentzen, Norway, for “A Balloon for Allah”.
She decides to send a balloon letter to Allah in order to change the role of women in the Muslim cultures. Following her grandmother’s “Sufi” path, she goes on a quest to find grandma’s Islam. The film shuttles between her actual journey and her dreams.
Nefise Özkal Lorentzen is a Turkish-Norwegian writer and filmmaker, living in Oslo. She has directed ten documentaries about several controversial themes.
