The Push by Grant Korgan[/caption]
Michael Franti’s Stay Human tied with Grant Korgan’s The Push for the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 5th annual ILLUMINATE Film Festival, in Sedona.
Stay Human takes viewers on a journey through music and the stories of some of the most inspiring individuals on the planet chronicling Franti’s experiences with people that he’s met on his travels who have chosen to overcome cynicism with optimism, hope, tenacity, music, and love. Directed by Grant Korgan and Brian Niles, The Push tells Korgan’s inspiring tale of triumph after becoming paralyzed in a snowmobile accident where he focused on 120 percent recovery to do the impossible: push his way over nearly 100 miles in Antarctica, spinal cord injury and all.
Franti also was the recipient of the festival’s inaugural Voice for Humanity Award. “It’s important to be able to see each other as human beings above all else,” noted Franti. “I believe that there is no one in the world that you wouldn’t love if you heard their story.”
The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Black Star, directed by Akira Chan. This short documentary explores art as a healing modality to stop the VICIOUS cycle of addiction.
In a feature competition section consisting of seven world and US Premieres, You Are What You Act took home the coveted 2018 Debut Feature Competition Jury Prize. The documentary proposes a revolutionary new health trend by asking what influences us more: our minds or our bodies. Director Albert Nerenberg and other leading psychologists in embodied cognition demonstrate fascinating psychological exercises with amazing results. Honorable Mentions were also given to Calling All Earthlings for unearthing a hidden truth and to From Shock to Awe for social impact.
Living Music, directed by Libby Spears, took home the jury prize in the Debut Short Film Competition. When a promising young musician’s career is almost cut short after he loses his voice to a rare medical condition called spasmodic dysphonia, he goes on a rehabilitative journey of artistic experimentation. Vision: Seeing is Believing received an Honorable Mention for cinematography.
From Shock to Awe captured the inaugural Mangurama Award for Conscious Documentary Storytelling. Including a $5000 cash prize, the Mangurama Award goes to to the most transformative non-fiction film that exhibits a strong story arc, compelling subjects and high production value. From Shock to Awe follows THE JOURNEY of returned U.S. combat veterans as they abandon pharmaceutical drugs to seek relief through the controversial, mind-expanding world of cannabis, ayahuasca and MDMA, known as ecstasy.
Documentary 3100: Run And Become captured the Director’s Choice Award. This sweeping examination of running’s spiritual nature, follows long-distance runners in Arizona, Finland, New York City, the Japanese highlands and Africa’s Kalahari Desert.
The ILLUMINATE Film Festival Impact Award went to Secret Ingredients by Amy Hart and Jeffrey Smith, which highlights through both personal stories and scientific input the role that pesticides and GMO’s are playing in compromising health on a large scale.
ILLUMINATE Film Festival
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2018 Illuminate Film Festival Awards: STAY HUMAN And THE PUSH Tie to Win Audience Award
[caption id="attachment_29849" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] The Push by Grant Korgan[/caption]
Michael Franti’s Stay Human tied with Grant Korgan’s The Push for the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 5th annual ILLUMINATE Film Festival, in Sedona.
Stay Human takes viewers on a journey through music and the stories of some of the most inspiring individuals on the planet chronicling Franti’s experiences with people that he’s met on his travels who have chosen to overcome cynicism with optimism, hope, tenacity, music, and love. Directed by Grant Korgan and Brian Niles, The Push tells Korgan’s inspiring tale of triumph after becoming paralyzed in a snowmobile accident where he focused on 120 percent recovery to do the impossible: push his way over nearly 100 miles in Antarctica, spinal cord injury and all.
Franti also was the recipient of the festival’s inaugural Voice for Humanity Award. “It’s important to be able to see each other as human beings above all else,” noted Franti. “I believe that there is no one in the world that you wouldn’t love if you heard their story.”
The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Black Star, directed by Akira Chan. This short documentary explores art as a healing modality to stop the VICIOUS cycle of addiction.
In a feature competition section consisting of seven world and US Premieres, You Are What You Act took home the coveted 2018 Debut Feature Competition Jury Prize. The documentary proposes a revolutionary new health trend by asking what influences us more: our minds or our bodies. Director Albert Nerenberg and other leading psychologists in embodied cognition demonstrate fascinating psychological exercises with amazing results. Honorable Mentions were also given to Calling All Earthlings for unearthing a hidden truth and to From Shock to Awe for social impact.
Living Music, directed by Libby Spears, took home the jury prize in the Debut Short Film Competition. When a promising young musician’s career is almost cut short after he loses his voice to a rare medical condition called spasmodic dysphonia, he goes on a rehabilitative journey of artistic experimentation. Vision: Seeing is Believing received an Honorable Mention for cinematography.
From Shock to Awe captured the inaugural Mangurama Award for Conscious Documentary Storytelling. Including a $5000 cash prize, the Mangurama Award goes to to the most transformative non-fiction film that exhibits a strong story arc, compelling subjects and high production value. From Shock to Awe follows THE JOURNEY of returned U.S. combat veterans as they abandon pharmaceutical drugs to seek relief through the controversial, mind-expanding world of cannabis, ayahuasca and MDMA, known as ecstasy.
Documentary 3100: Run And Become captured the Director’s Choice Award. This sweeping examination of running’s spiritual nature, follows long-distance runners in Arizona, Finland, New York City, the Japanese highlands and Africa’s Kalahari Desert.
The ILLUMINATE Film Festival Impact Award went to Secret Ingredients by Amy Hart and Jeffrey Smith, which highlights through both personal stories and scientific input the role that pesticides and GMO’s are playing in compromising health on a large scale.
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RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD and HARE KRISHNA! Win Top Awards at Illuminate Film Festival
[caption id="attachment_20521" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World[/caption]
RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked The World, the documentary that examines the often-under-appreciated role of Native American tradition in the evolution of American popular music, received the Audience Award for Best Feature Film at the 2017 Illuminate Film Festival, in Sedona. Directed by Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana, the film features Link Wray, Robbie Robertson, Jesse Ed Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Randy Castillo, Martin Scorsese, Quincy Jones, Steven Tyler, Iggy Pop, Tony Bennett and George Clinton. Second place went to Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement and the Swami Who Started It All, directed by John Griesser and co-directed by Jean Griesser and Lauren Ross.
In the feature competition section, Hare Krishna! took home the coveted 2017 Feature Competition Jury Prize. The documentary follows the true story of an unexpected, prolific, and controversial revolutionary, 70-year-old Indian Swami Srila Prabhupada, whose unflinching determination and faith ignited the worldwide Hare Krishna movement.
The Georgia Wyss-directed documentary, Mantra – Sounds Into Silence, captured the Director’s Choice Award. The film offers viewers a transformative journey of the human experience through which music is used to reach, unify and liberate even those on the outskirts of humanity. An Honorable Mention went to the Opening Night film HEAL, by director Kelly Noonan, which attracted the festival’s largest audience of the year.
The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to The Invisible World, directed by Jen Fineran. This short documentary tells the story of artist Mark Weiss as he embarks on a mystical transformation through the 10,000 scrapes and strokes needed to manifest a single work of art. The runner up in the Short Film category was environmental doc Straws, directed by Illuminate alum Linda Booker (Bringing It Home, 2015).
The Illuminate Film Festival Impact Award went to City of Joy by Madeleine Gavin, which highlights the tremendous resilience of abused women in the Republic of Congo who transform their suffering into inspired forms of leadership with the help of playwright Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues). The screening sparked a cathartic post-screening discussion where filmgoers courageously shared powerful personal stories. All The Rage, a film about healing chronic pain through the mind-body connection, took home an Honorable Mention.
Organizers announced its first satellite festival, the Illuminate Film Festival Retreat on October 6-9, 2017 in Santa Cruz, California.