Awards
The awards for the Best of VideoFest 22:
Best Feature Documentary
Glass House
Hamid Rahmanian
With a virtually invisible camera, The Glass House takes us on a never-before-seen tour of the underclass of Iran. This groundbreaking documentary reflects a side of Iran few have access to. It introduces us to a group of courageous women working to instill a sense of empowerment and hope into the lives of otherwise discarded teenage girls
Best Narrative short
Sleet Snow
Daniel Laabs
Casual acquaintances, Robert and Marian, travel to Odessa, TX to pick up a painting and along the way develop a unique relationship.
Best Comedy short
Start a band
Daniel Laabs
Charlie and Becca have a boring relationship, so they decide to start a band.
Best Narrative feature
The Toe Tactic
Emily Hubley
A light-hearted and perceptive exploration of memory, regret and the nature of reality itself, The Toe Tactic follows Mona Peek (Lily Rabe) on an impulsive visit to her abandoned suburban childhood home. There, her lonely life is shaken by a flood of grief for her dead father and nostalgia for the world the two shared in decades gone by. A lost wallet and a buried bone become the keys to a playfully fractured reality of talking dogs, a single mom, her son, his piano teacher, an amorous elevator man, an eccentric dowager, and the intricate web of secrets, longings and intersections that connects them.
Best experimental film
Dropping furniture
Paul Horn, Harald Hund
What remains when nothing more remains and life is literally turned upside down? In this film, the furniture of an obviously old-fashioned, middle-class living room is disposed of, smashing on the floor, orchestrated by an echoing sound track synchronized with the decelerated image. Finally, the wreckage fills the room with the spreading waste of its own history.
Meta Media Award (Awarded by Bart Weiss)
Burma VJ
Anders Østergaard
Armed with video cameras, Burmese reporters expose the repressive regime controlling their country. In 2007, after decades of silence, Burma became headline news when peaceful Buddhist monks led a massive rebellion. Foreign news crews were banned, the Internet was shut down, and Burma was closed to the outside world. So how did we witness these events? Enter the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB), aka the Burma VJs.
Texas Show Audience Choice award:
LAMBS
Stephen Huff
As the Peterson family drives down a dusty back-country Texas road, they encounter brothers Jake and Thomas, seemingly stranded on the side of the road. The Petersons stop to help Jake and Thomas, but, when the brothers have other plans in store for the Petersons, the brothers’ day surprisingly takes a turn for the far worst.
Congratulations!