2014, 47TH ANNUAL HUMBOLDT INT’L FILM FESTIVAL
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FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS
Best of Fest Awards
Experimental – Virtuos Virtuell Directed by Thomas Stellmach and Maja Oschmann **
Animation – Light Me Up Directed by Derek Dolechek and Ryan Watson
Documentary – Heklina Directed by Brian Favorite
Narrative – Helpless Directed by Christene Hurley
Best of the Fest – Salmon Deadly Sins Directed by Steven Vander Meer
People’s Choice Awards
Experimental – Virtuos Virtuell Directed by Thomas Stellmach and Maja Oschmann **
Animation – Salmon Deadly Sins Directed by Steven Vander Meer
Documentary – Forge Directed by Andrew Baird
Narrative – Helpless Directed by Christene Hurley
Special Awards
Leto Matteoli Award for Best Film with an Immigration Theme – Searching for Answers Directed by Dee Thao
Jim Demulling Award for BEst Film with Social Justice Theme – Butterfly Dreams Directed by Venkat Krishnan
Pablo Koontz Experimental Award for Best Experimental Technique in a film – Fieldbrook Livin’ Directed by Jules Coronado
FILM FESTIVAL JUDGES
JOEL MOFFET
Joel Moffett was raised on the island of Maui where he graduated high school from Seabury Hall. He holds an MFA in Film Directing from the American Film Institute and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Humboldt State University. He has received grants from the NEA, the AFI, the Tides Foundation, the Lane Family Foundation and the Colin Higgins Foundation. Recognition for his film work includes a Student Academy Award, a Student Emmy Award, the Amy Bloch Directing Award and AFI’s highest honor, the Schaffner Award. Collectively, his films have screened in over seventy international film festivals including Cannes and Berlin. His film My Body received the award for Best Short at fourteen film festivals including the Los Angeles International Film Festival, The Uppsala International Film Festival, the Nashville Film Festival, the Aspen Short Fest, Cinequest and Clermont Ferrand. Joel has directed numerous award-winning plays including Havel’s The Memorandum, Brecht’s The Threepenny Opera, and Euripides’ Alcestis. His original play The Middle of Nowhere toured the homeless shelters and soup kitchens of the continental United States. While in Los Angeles, Joel taught screenwriting and Directing at the American Film Institute for nine years. In addition, he consistently taught screen acting, production and directing classes for the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University. Joel has worked as a screenwriter for Alibi Entertainment (London), Hervis Entertainment (Berlin) and Moving Movies (Los Angeles). In 2007 his short film Horsepower screened at twenty-eight film festivals, winning top honors at seven, including the London Independent Film Festival and the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival. In 2010 his short film Poi Dogs screened at over sixty film festivals, including Tribeca, Berlin, and Melbourne. Poi Dogs won the Grand Jury Prize for “Best Short” at the Washington D.C. Independent Film Festival, the Platinum Remi Award at the WorldFest Houston, a Cine Golden Eagle Award through the CINE Awards Competition, and the Award of Merit from the Accolade Film Awards Competition. Most notably, Poi Dogs won the sole Award of Merit at the 2010 University Film and Video Association Conference. Presently Joel serves as Associate Professor in the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. In this capacity he was awarded a Chancellor’s Citation for Meritorious Teaching in 2010.
ANAYANSI PRADO
Anayansi Prado is an award-winning documentary filmmaker who has taught and showcased her work throughout the U.S., Latin America, Asia & Africa. Anayansi was born in Panama and moved to the United States as a teenager. Her debut documentary Maid in America about Latina domestic workers in Los Angeles, CA screened nationally on the PBS series Independent Lens. Her second production, the award-winning documentary Children in No Man’s Land about unaccompanied minors crossing the US/Mexico border screened in more than 30 countries around the world. Paraiso for Sale, her third independent production, takes Prado back to her homeland, Panama to document the impact American retirees and developers are having on the local community of Bocas del Toro Panama. Paraiso for Sale is being broadcast nationally on PBS and has won numerous film festival awards. Anayansi is an Adjunct Professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. She also works on a regular basis with the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs to bring documentary filmmaking production and photography training to people in developing countries. She’s taught in Burma, Angola, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Singapore, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, and Paraguay. She also serves as a Film Expert on the US State Department’s film program The American Film Showcase (2013-14). Ms. Prado is a recipient of a Rockefeller Media Fellowship and has received funding from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Creative Capital, Latino Public Broadcasting, The Paul Robeson Media Fund, and many other foundations. Anayansi is the founder of Impacto Films and the non-profit Impacto Project with the mission to bring photography and video training to youth in developing countries. She holds a BA in Film from Boston University. Anayansi resides in Los Angeles, California.
MARIA MATTEO
Award winning filmmaker Maria Matteoli finds inspiration in the place we call home: Humboldt County, California. She is a 7th generation native of Humboldt, an alumnus of St. Bernard’s Catholic School in Eureka, who studied acting in both San Francisco and Manhattan before returning to school for her BA in Film from HSU. She then moved to Italy, working as an art history guide at the Vatican in Rome, where her travels inspired her to write a screenplay. After returning to California, she established her own video production company, Mermade Film, which enabled her to produce and direct over fifty short films, music videos, commercials and campaign documentaries. She was brought on board the Humboldt Made endeavor, directing sixteen short films for the County of Humboldt, including the “Love, Humboldt” series. Her first feature film, The Wine of Summer, which she wrote, directed, and produced was primarily shot in and around Barcelona, Spain, with additional scenes filmed in Hollywood and Old Town, Eureka. The film stars an international cast including Ethan Peck (grandson of Gregory Peck), Spanish film stars Elsa Pataky (Fast Five), Najwa Nimri (Sex & Lucia), Golden Globe Nominee Brazilian Sonia Braga, and Academy Award Winner Marcia Gay Harden. The Wine of Summer had its world premiere at the Douro Film Festival in Porto, Portugal in September 2013, where it won the top prize in its category. The film has just received a world-wide distribution deal from New Films International. She is currently finishing up her latest feature-length script, Lady of the Canyon, which is based on a true story and takes place in the Rocky Mountains in the 1870’s. She is married and has a one-year old son, Ledo.