The in-person portion of DOC NYC 2021 is winding down, and the festival has begun presenting its awards. A press release has announced the juried honors for this year’s edition. “Once Upon a Time in Uganda,” Cathryne Czubek’s “bromantic comedy” about two film lovers connecting and collaborating in Kampala, took home one of the top awards, the Grand Jury Prize – U.S. Competition.
“We choose ‘Once Upon a Time in Uganda’ for illustrating the transformative capacity of film to bridge cultures and change lives,” the jurors stated. “We are inspired by the charming, original method the filmmakers took in documenting the creative joy of Wakaliwood, a community that relies on ingenuity and imagination to overcome the economic obstacles of global audiovisual production; and we appreciate how ‘Once Upon a Time in Uganda’ demonstrates the connective power of international film festivals in asserting that ‘the audience is our family.’”
“Refuge,” Erin Bernhardt and Din Blankenship’s story of two very different men searching for acceptance, and navigating hate, in contemporary America, received a Special Mention in the U.S. Competition section. “We give an honorable mention to ‘Refuge’ for addressing one of the U.S.’s most urgent problems — the lack of civil dialogue, or any dialogue, between our warring cultural factions,” the jurors said.
Arami Ullón’s “Nothing But the Sun” received a Special Mention in the Kaleidoscope section, which features formally innovative docs, as did Nira Burstein’s “Charm Circle” in the Metropolis category, which showcases NYC stories. Described by the jurors as “a choral film, one full of speaking that prioritizes the collective, rather than an individual voice,” the former doc focuses on an Ayoreo man working to preserve the stories and songs of his culture. Burstein’s chronicle of her own family, “Charm Circle” was lauded by the jurors for “patiently/lovingly unfold[ing] with moments of humor and creativity to build compassion for a family’s hopes and dreams as well as a profound sense of loss.”
DOC NYC considered its Features Short List — “a selection of nonfiction films that the festival’s programming team considers to be among the year’s strongest contenders for Oscars and other awards” — while presenting its filmmaking honors. The Directing Award went to Nanfu Wang for her exploration of COVID misinformation in the U.S. and China, “In the Same Breath.” The jury specifically commended Wang’s “unwavering, skillful, and persistent command of the documentary craft that it takes to make such a complex and emotional film.”
The all-women producing team of Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen, and Charlotte De La Gournerie took home the Producing Award for “Flee,” the animated non-fiction about a refugee who fled Afghanistan as a boy and came of age as a gay man in Europe. Jessica Kingdon and Jessica Beshir respectively won the Editing Award for “Ascension” and the Cinematography Award for “Faya Dayi.” The former is an essay film exploring China’s social ladder, and the latter examines the Ethiopian cash crop kaht as well as its spiritual, economic, and political significance.
The winner of DOC NYC’s 2021 Audience Award will be announced this Friday, November 19. The fest’s in-person events will conclude November 18, but 100 titles will be available to stream across the U.S. through November 28. Find out more at the fest’s website.
