DOC NYC has announced the winners of its 2020 Jury Awards. “Landfall,” Cecilia Aldarondo’s portrait of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, took home the Viewfinders Grand Jury Prize.
“‘Landfall’ is an expression of the impotence, grief, and rage that I have been carrying with me since Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico in 2017,” Aldarondo told us. “My wheelchair-bound grandmother died six months after the storm, and I now count her as one of the thousands of unnecessary deaths that María caused. I didn’t grow up in Puerto Rico; like many Puerto Ricans, I am the product of a diaspora that was forced upon us by economic challenges. In making this film, I was driven by a desire to confront a massive abyss in my own understanding of Puerto Rican history and culture as a way of addressing deep colonial wounds,” she explained.
Jurors praised “Landfall” for its “piercing yet poetic observational gaze, rigorous control in illuminating complex issues and the logics of disaster capitalism, and collaborative production with local activists.”
“Through the Night,” Loira Limbal’s look inside a 24-hour daycare center, was awarded Special Jury Recognition for Ethics of Care for its “exceptional attention to the lived experience of caregivers, intimate narrativization with dignity, and fully inclusive approach to concretely uplifting the stories of its protagonists.”
Tiffany Hsiung’s “Sing Me a Lullaby” was named as the winner of the Shorts Grand Jury Prize. The short explores Hsiung’s mother’s search for her birth parents in Taiwan. Jurors emphasized “Sing Me a Lullaby’s” “ability to evoke an emotional depth that takes you on an intimate journey that is both poignant and packs a punch.”
As Grand Jury Prize winners, Aldarondo and Hsiung will “receive a deliverables package provided by Technicolor-PostWorks New York, a comprehensive post facility offering data and film workflows, multi-format conform, color grading, sound mixing, and digital cinema,” a press release from DOC NYC details.
Head over to DOC NYC’s website to see all of the winners.
