BendFilm announced that 15 films and filmmakers were awarded jury prizes at the 2019 BendFilm Festival. These films fall into 12 categories, including the coveted Best of Show, which carries a $5,000 cash prize. More than 1,200 films were submitted to BendFilm from across the country and across the globe.
The IndieWomen of the Year Award, in honor of Pamela Hulse Andrews, was presented to indie producer Christine Vachon at the screening of her film Carol at the Tower Theater on Friday, October 11. It was Christine’s indelible mark on independent film that drew the BendFilm team to want to highlight her career at the 2019 Festival. Often directors get the credit once a film is out in the world, but BendFilm took a new approach to the Indie Woman of the Year award this year by acknowledging the behind-the-scenes work producers do from concept to completion.
Erik Jambor, festival programmer, said, “This year’s competition lineup was the strongest in years, and the jury had a difficult time selecting our 16th annual film festival award winners.”
Jurors for the Festival included: Cheryl Strayed, author and filmmaker; Amy Dotson, director of the Northwest Film Center; Falk Hentschel, actor; Ted Speaker, producer; Skizz Cyzyk, musician and indie filmmaker; Melanie Addington, director/screenwriter; Warren Etheredge, producer and playwright; Matt Lopez, film and television writer/producer; Brian Lindstrom, filmmaker; Ian McCluskey, documentary filmmaker; LaRonn Katchia, director; and Isaac Trimble, Native American flute artist and film producer.
The 2019 BendFilm Festival Award recipients:
Best of Show ($5,000, presented by Brooks Resources since 2004):
Mossville: When Great Trees Fall
Directed by Alexander Glustrom
Central Oregon Premiere
A centuries-old black community in Louisiana is contaminated and uprooted by petrochemical plants. As the community comes to terms with the loss of their ancestral home, one man standing in the way of a plant’s expansion refuses to give up.
Best Directing ($500, made possible by Independent Women for Independent Film):
Once Upon a River
Written and directed by Haroula Rose
Central Oregon Premiere
The story of Native American teenager Margo Crane in 1970s rural Michigan. Margo is forced to journey on the Stark River in search of her estranged mother. As Margo uses the skills she was taught by her father to survive, she meets many characters along the way. Most importantly Smoke, and the two strike up an unlikely friendship. Despite the challenges, Margo is able to stay true to herself as she discovers what it means to live.
Best Narrative Feature ($1,000, made possible by Jay and Sheila Luber):
Clementine
Written and directed by Laura Jean Gallagher
Oregon Premiere
A heartbroken woman becomes entangled with a younger girl after breaking into her ex’s lake house in the Pacific Northwest. Equal parts psychological drama and sexual coming-of-age story, Clementine is a tense rumination on who to love and how to let go.
Best Documentary Feature ($1,000, made possible by JL Ward Co. and Business for BendFilm):
Kifaru
Directed by David Hambridge
Central Oregon Premiere
With the northern white rhino species on the brink of extinction, two ranger recruits are mentored by a seasoned ranger with an unorthodox approach to caring for the last northern white rhino male. Spanning over the course of the recruits’ first four years on the job, Kifaru allows viewers to experience the joys and pitfalls of conservation firsthand through the lens of the men that look into the eyes of extinction on a daily basis. Presented in English & Swahili with English subtitles.
Best Cinematography:
Clementine
Cinematography by Andres Karu
Oregon Premiere
A heartbroken woman becomes entangled with a younger girl after breaking into her ex’s lake house in the Pacific Northwest. Equal parts psychological drama and sexual coming-of-age story, Clementine is a tense rumination on who to love and how to let go.
Best Indigenous Feature ($500, made possible by Oregon Community Foundation and Collins Foundation)
Attla
West Coast Premiere
Directed by Catharine Axley
The story of dogsled champion George Attla, from his childhood as a TB survivor in the remote Alaskan interior, through his rise as ten-time world champion and mythical state hero, and finally as a village elder resolutely training his grandnephew to race his dogs one last time.
Special Jury Award for Best Native Knowledge
Native Wisdom: The Peoples of Eastern Oregon
Central Oregon Premiere
Directed by Tim Keenan Burgess & Lawrence Johnson
Indigenous scientists and elders from several Oregon interior tribes, including the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Reservation, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde share observations of their changing environment, natural resource issues and the beauty of tribes’ traditional arts, music and storytelling.
Best Environmental / Outdoor Adventure Feature ($500, made possible by Frank Groundwater and Rebecca Warner)
Eating Up Easter
Directed by Sergio M. Rapu
Central Oregon Premiere
In a cinematic letter to his son, native Rapanui (Easter Island) filmmaker Sergio Mata’u Rapu explores the modern dilemma of their people, descendants of the ancient statue builders, as they face the consequences of their rapidly developing home.
Special Jury Award for Narrative Short
Sometimes, I Think About Dying
Directed by Stefanie Abel Horowitz
Fran is thinking about dying, but a man in the office might want to date her.
Best Narrative Short ($500, made possible by Independent Women for Independent Film):
The Neighbors’ Window
Directed by Marshall Curry
A middle-aged mother of young children has grown frustrated with her daily routine and husband, but her life is shaken up when two free-spirited 20-somethings move in across the street and she discovers that she can see into their apartment.
Best Documentary Short ($500, made possible by Independent Women for Independent Film):
All on a Mardi Gras Day
Directed by Michal Pietrzyk
In gentrifying New Orleans, Demond sacrifices to be Big Chief in a secret 200-year culture known as Mardi Gras Indians: African-American men from the city roughest neighborhoods spend all year sewing feathered suits they’ll wear only once in a battle to decide who’s “the prettiest.”
Special Jury Awards for Documentary Feature
Little Miss Westie
Directed by Joy E. Reed & Dan Hunt
Two transgender siblings as they navigate puberty, family and transitioning during the Trump era. Ren is competing in the Lil Miss Westie Pageant as the first out trans-girl; coaching her is her older brother, Luca who knows his stuff because he competed when he was Ren’s age and living as a girl.
Best Animated Short ($500, made possible by Independent Women for Independent Film):
A Line Birds Cannot See
Directed by Amy Bench
Separated from her mother by smugglers at the border, a determined 12-year old sets out across a desert to find her mother and a place where they can be safe again.
Special Jury Award for Animated Short
The Phantom 52
Directed by Geoff Marslett
Tom Skerritt stars in this animated short film about a lonely trucker waiting for a reply on the CB radio.
Best Student Short ($500, made possible since 2005 by Dan Wieden and Priscilla Bernard Wieden on behalf of Caldera Arts):
F*ck
Directed by Vern Hass (University of Southern California)
A one-word journey through an unsuspecting freshmen’s sexual trials, tribulations and revelations through her first semester of college.
Best of the Northwest ($500, made possible by Business for BendFilm)
Wave Hands Like Clouds
Directed by Marga Laube
What it feels like to be walking a wiggly line in the sky, just you, the wind and the clouds.
The Katie Merritt Audience Award ($500, made possible by ticket sales. The audience votes for and contributes directly to the filmmaker who walks away with this award; winner TBA)