“One Child Nation” has taken home another Grand Jury prize. Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s Sundance winner was presented with the Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award at Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, a press release announced.
“One Child Nation” explores the untold history of China’s controversial one-child policy and its impact on generations of families.
“We want to honor a film that we universally feel is powerful and insightful,” said Full Frame’s jury. “Our favorite documentaries take us into new worlds and break open narratives that we only understood on a surface level. This film personalizes the political by taking us deeper into the personal costs of that policy. The level of inquiry in the film is vital — the film raises profound questions about personal responsibility, morality, and government abuses. ‘One Child Nation’ resonates with an authentic voice that allows us to examine the world around us and ourselves in new ways.”
When we interviewed Wang ahead of “One Child Nation’s” world premiere at Sundance, she emphasized that she hopes audiences who see the film “will become aware of and remember what happened in China during the one-child policy. I also hope people outside of China can think about their own situation and their own history,” she added. “Propaganda doesn’t only happen in China. It takes savviness to recognize what is propaganda around us, and more often than not, it’s more pervasive in our lives than we think it is.”
Sahra Mani won the Filmmaker Award for “A Thousand Girls Like Me,” which tells the story of an Afghan woman who was sexually abused by her father. She takes her story to national TV in the hopes of drawing attention to flaws in the Afghan judicial system.
“I hope audiences are inspired witnessing Khatera’s fight as well as her bravery and resilience and the love she spread to others,” Mani told us. “Audiences might also appreciate what they have in their own life and think about how lucky they are to be born in a different part of the world. But whatever they come away with, I hope they start thinking about how they can help to achieve peace all around the world.”
The Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award honors a first-time documentary feature director. This year’s recipient is “Titixe” director Tania Hernández Velasco. “‘Titixe’ follows the last attempt of a Mexican family — my family — to cultivate their small plot of land,” Hernández Velasco explained in an interview with us. “It is a playful and nostalgic exploration of a landscape where bean sprouts dance to norteña songs, clouds possess a secret language, trees are submerged in mourning, and the ghostly presence of the last peasant of the family, my grandfather, is deeply felt.”
Check out all of the women directors and co-directors to receive prizes at Full Frame 2019 below. List adapted from Full Frame.
The Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award
Sponsored by The Reva and David Logan Foundation
One Child Nation, directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang
Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short
Provided by Drs. Barbra and Andrew Rothschild
Obon, directed by André Hörmann and Anna Samo
Full Frame Audience Award – Short
Sponsored by Thunder Mountain Media
Life Overtakes Me, directed by John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson
Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award
Provided by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
A Thousand Girls Like Me, directed by Sahra Mani
Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award
Provided by the Charles E. Guggenheim Family
Titixe, directed by Tania Hernández Velasco
Full Frame President’s Award
Sponsored by Duke University
One Thing in Nothing, directed by Whitney Legge
