While North America begins to see the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, or at least a return to some of the normality we enjoyed some fourteen months ago, R31 has much to celebrate. During the past few weeks, as festival and award competitions come back to life, we saw three of our films recognized by four different festivals across North America. R31 also was delighted to begin filming for a new documentary in Kentucky.
To start, the short music documentary, Eagle & Hawk Take the Stage, won Best of the Fest – Short Music Documentary (Foreign) at the Bare Bones Music & Documentary Film Festival in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The film, which explores North America’s most celebrated indigenous rock group, is also a finalist at the Vancouver Independent Film Festival and they will be announcing the winners on June 12th. Prior to this, CBC will also be rebroadcasting the documentary nationally on June 6th for the Absolutely Canada series. Congratulations to co-directors Vince Fontaine and Andrew Wall for their dedication to getting this story out there.
Additionally, Volendam: A Refugee Story is still going strong. Besides screening across North America, virtually & at in person film festivals, the documentary film has also been showing through the Mennonite Colonies in Paraguay. This past week it was awarded The Humanitarian Film Award, one of the two special jury awards, at the International Christian Film and Music Festival which was held May 19 – 22 in Orlando, Florida. The film has also just won Silver for Best Foreign Documentary at the International Christian Visual Media Crown Awards. The announcement of the winners had been moved a few times (due to Covid) but finally was held in Grapevine, Texas, on June 23 at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention.
Not to be forgotten, The Science Fiction Makers: Rousseau, Lewis and L’Engle has just received an Award of Excellence at the Accolade Global Film Competition. A few weeks back it was also awarded a Silver Remi Award at the 54th annual Houston World Fest in Texas. Houston Worldfest is the oldest running indie film fest in the world and previously awarded a Gold Remi to Burning Ember: The Steve Bell Journey in 2016.
Accolade is unique and the industry leader of virtual film competitions. Attracting both powerhouse companies as well as talented new filmmakers, it is an unparalleled, truly international awards competition, not a traditional film festival… – Accolade Global Film Competition
Finally, as you can see by the photo above, we began production of a fascinating new documentary that examines the “Satanic Panic” of the eighties. That’s the legendary artist Larry Elmore in Kentucky chatting on camera with our dear friend the Rev. Derek White. Derek, A.K.A. the Geekpreacher, was also featured in our two films – The Science Fiction Makers and The Fantasy Makers. That’s all we’re going to say for now about this film so stay tuned…
Thanks to all the crew, actors and beyond that helped make these films a reality!
(This post updated June 23, 2021)