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Travel Documentary Scholarship 2010 - And the winner is...

WORLDWIDE | Sunday, 1 August 2010 | Views [20122] | Comments [15] | Scholarship Entry

Wow!

We received 178 quality entries for this year's Documentary Scholarship. Your stories took us on an exciting journey around the world to places like Africa, India, Alaska, South America, South East Asia and Papua New Guinea. We were also invited into your backyards to learn about the people and communities in your local neighborhood.

But.....we only have one space booked on the amazing adventure to Ecuador, so one winner had to be selected! Thank you to everyone who entered, particularly those who were shortlisted, your stories are very powerful.

A big congratulations to our winner - Mohamed Soliman from Cairo!

Winner: Mohamed Soliman- Forgetting the Past

Judge's comments: One of the hardest aspects of making a documentary is to get your subjects to open up to you and drop the facade that people often put on in front of camera. Mohamed did this wonderfully. His subject David seems honest and sincere as he recalls his tragic story. The visuals gave a great sense of place and enhanced the tone of the piece without being overly complicated and detracting from the rawness of the story being conveyed. A great doco that conveys an amazing amount of story and emotion in such a short space of time.

Runners Up (equal placing)

Eliza Capai - African Women

Judge's comments: African Woman was a visual feast with a clever narrative device that tackled an enormous subject in a clever and engaging style. It was great to see such grand ambitions for such a short amount of screen time.

Tanner Brandt- An Experience with The Bookery

Judge's comments: An Experience with the Bookery was inspiring short that took an interesting subject and told the story in well paced and visually interesting style. It was a great effort from a filmmaker with enormous potential.

The Shortlist (in alphabetical order)

Paul Bischoff - Violin to Ehru

Angela Buhr

Ryan Chapman - A Game of Two Halves

David Elkins - Anaktuvuk

Francesca Gentile - Female Genital Mutilation in Sierra Leone

Nicia Griljava - Lost Mexico

Rob Henry

Elyse Hickey- Beyond Smiles

Alice Holden - Jacob's Ankylosing Spondylitis Documentary

Riley Hooper - Seed to Plate- A Garden Story

Niall Johansson - The Fisherman

Belle Keynes - Yam I Am

Daniel Mandic - Bangladesh

Qween Martins - Spoons

Victor Ponce - Respira

Saleem Reshamwala - Cell Phone Silk Road

Aaron Rockett - Thug Life

Diego Tipacti - Left Ashore

Amber Todd - Local Encounters

Andres Toro - Dying Currents

Derek Turner - Local Encounters

Chris Stone - Where the Clouds Come From

Paulette Waltz - Romansi and his Boat

Louie Young - A Film Inspired by Home

Wei Zheng- Nguni Cattle Farming in South Africa

Congratulations to you all, and thank you for sharing your important stories with us. We look forward to seeing your entries next year!

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Comments

1

The winner of this year with no doubt has been chosen appropriately.I do agree with the judges for this story has everything emotions and a powerful message connected with it.I too had participated for the scholarship but I am happy that my competent Mr.Mohamed Soliman has won it.Its a well deserved work...Congratulations to the Judges for making such a tough decision and even Mr.Mohamed Soliman for such a fantastic documentary...

Pooja Jani Aug 17, 2010 12:41 AM

2

This was beautiful. A hard decision I'm sure, but well deserved! congratulations to Mohamed

Carla Moreno Aug 17, 2010 2:36 AM

3

Great piece. I entered too, but losing to something this quality make it easier to handle. Good luck to you! keep it up.
Derek

worldturner Aug 17, 2010 10:28 AM

4

Fantastic doco, Mohamed. Make the most of your time in Ecuador, looking forward to seeing more from you over the coming years.

Ant Stone Aug 17, 2010 12:10 PM

5

congratulations on such an amazing piece of work there! as the judges said in the comments above you somehow really made your subject feel so comfortable and open up to you and i think that is a great skill.

I look forward to seeing what you make from your trip to ecuador.

Louie Young Aug 17, 2010 7:57 PM

6

I too entered, but absolutley agree, that's a fantastic doco Mohamed! Well done, I really enjoyed your work! I'm looking forward to seeing the results of Ecuador! Congratualtions.

Emily Aug 17, 2010 11:03 PM

7

Congrats to the winner, very good piece. Please explain to me about the shortlist.
thanks a lot for this great opportunity.

andres toro Aug 17, 2010 11:47 PM

8

Having just watched all the videos on the shortlist I can see how this was a very tough decision, but I think you made the right one. Congrats Mohamed.

Ryan Chapman Aug 18, 2010 12:13 AM

9

The winner and the runners up have been chosen wisely and justly. I am glad to have lost to these great pieces of work and I hope the best for the future of these documentary filmmakers.

Lucia Aug 20, 2010 7:16 PM

10

Congratulations Mohamed Soliman! I too entered with "Left Ashore" from Peru and I'm glad to see you are the winner for 2010. I can see how you will benefit from this and wish you all the best in Ecuador. I can't wait to see what you will bring back. Keep rocking!
Best regards
Diego Tipacti

diegotipacti Aug 22, 2010 3:33 AM

11

That was very good.
And looked professional.
Here is Mohamed's company website http://eye-inside.com
I could be wrong, but it looks like he is a professional documentary maker. - Knowing this should make all the losers feel a little bit better :)

Congratulations to Mohamed. Keep up the good job.
For everyone else, go make another documentary!

Best Regards

P.S.
Extracts from http://journals.worldnomads.com/scholarships/post/54707.aspx
"- Professional film makers will not be eligible. This is a mentorship for emerging talent."
"...If you are working professionally in the field of making documentaries..."
"this really is a mentorship for non-professional filmamkers, so the opportunity is not appropriate for you. We are trying to give soemone a start"
"you would qualify providing you don't work professionally with documentaries"
I could be wrong, but it seems that judges weren't looking at that after all.
According to Judge's comments, they just wanted to find the best doco. And that's fine.
Thank you for this opportunity WorldNomads.

ilya Aug 22, 2010 10:25 PM

12

Thank you all for your amazing comments :) I've seen every single entry and I must say I'm very honored to be part of this great group with all your films.

Ilya, thanks for your comment and I'd like to say something regarding your P.S statement :) I graduated with a bachelors in engineering and worked as an engineer for 4 years before I decided my path was destined to be different. So i quit when I was 27, leaving behind all the money I used to make in the oil business and spent my savings on film school.(all this is in my bio in the website) I graduated in 2009 and spent the last 2 years working extremely hard to build myself from nothing, doing projects in every country I can, getting paid next to nothing, only to do what I'm extremely passionate about. Yes I do have a company with a website but that is because I work really hard in establishing myself so I could get a big break like this one. This is my real start that I've been working real hard to be ready for. And that is something we all should aspire to do, cuz after all, we're filmmakers cuz we love it and are willing to always work hard for it :)
Thanks again everyone for your kind words and amazing support :)

soly Aug 23, 2010 1:09 AM