The Greenwich International Film Festival is proud to announce the winners of the 2017 Festival film awards. The awards were presented on June 2nd at the Opening Night Party. Director of Programming Colleen deVeer presented the awards, with the help of the Head of Social Impact Jury, Sophia Bush. Thank you to the Bill & Ann Bresnan Foundation for graciously underwriting the Social Impact Prize, and thank you to Jim & Kate Clark for underwriting the Features Prizes.
Directed By: Matthew Heineman
Run Time: 90 mins
Country: USA
Category: Documentary Feature
Directed, produced, and filmed by Academy Award–nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker, and Connecticut native Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, 2015 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award), CITY OF GHOSTS is a singularly powerful cinematic experience that is sure to shake audiences to their core as it elevates the canon of one of the most talented documentary filmmakers working today. Captivating in its immediacy, CITY OF GHOSTS follows the journey of “Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently”— a handful of anonymous activists who banded together after their homeland was taken over by ISIS in 2014. With astonishing, deeply personal access, this is the story of a brave group of citizen journalists as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile, risking their lives to stand up against one of the greatest evils in the world today.
Directed By: Kief Davidson & Pedro Kos
Run Time: 102 mins
Country: USA
A powerful documentary about the extraordinary team of doctors and activists – including Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, and Ophelia Dahl – whose work thirty years ago to save lives in a rural Haitian village grew into a global battle in the halls of power for the right to health for all. Epic, yet intimate, the film is a compelling argument for the power of collective and personal vision and will to turn the tide of history.
Directed By: Christopher Radcliff & Lauren Wolkstein
Run Time: 81 mins
Country: USA
Mysterious events surround two travelers, seemingly brothers, as they make their way across a remote American landscape. On the surface all seems normal, but what appears to be a simple vacation soon gives way to a dark and complex web of secrets.
Directed By: Eric Heimbold
Run Time: 17 mins
Country: USA
Category: Documentary Short
A blind adventure writer and the first sustainable sushi chef search for enlightenment in the murky depths of the New England coast.
Directed By: Patrick Bresnan
Run Time: 12 mins
Country: USA
In the Florida Everglades, rabbit hunting is considered a rite of passage for young men. THE RABBIT HUNT follows seventeen-year-old Chris and his family as they hunt in the fields of the largest industrial sugar farms in the US. The film records a tradition by which migrant farm workers in the communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee have been hunting and preparing rabbits since the early 1900s.
Directed By: Lilli Schwabe
Run Time: 33 mins
Country: Austria
Clara, an OB/GYN, supports her patients’ decisions, whether they are bringing a child into the world or terminating a pregnancy. As a wife and loving mother to her two little children, the increasing pressure of daily life and her self-imposed belief system are beginning to falter. She finds that her duties at the clinic suddenly seem insurmountable and her family is slipping away.
