Baeksang Arts Award Grand Prize – Film

• Last night, Shine Global – the renowned nonprofit media company dedicated to producing and supporting impactful documentaries about children's issues – awarded Name Me Lawand as the winner of their second annual Children's Resilience in Film Awards in Los Angeles.
• The Children's Resilience in Film Awards, now in its second year, honors exceptional films that center around the resilience of children in the face of adversity.
• "It is our true honor and pleasure to award Name Me Lawand the winner of this year's Children's Resilience in Film Awards," said Susan MacLaury, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Shine Global.
• For more information about Shine Global and the Children's Resilience in Film Awards, please visit shineglobal.org .

• In the past 15 years 64 radio receiving dishes have appeared on the landscape.
• The film also examines Karoo star-lore as it is shared and spread by an interwoven tapestry of oral traditions.
• Conventional ideas about the nature of science are challenged and the dominant structures of knowledge creation are questioned as a result.
• In an age progressively dominated by digital and automated knowledge it was important that the film hold space for this notion.

Inflected with star-lore

• In a ǀXam conception of the universe there is no alienating distance between inner and outer, person, stars and space.
• That’s because their cultural understanding of reciprocities encourages ecological and cosmic connection.
• When I look up into the sky and look at how my star is positioned, and look up at the star’s direction, I know which way to walk.

Animism and animation

• !Aitsa investigates a modern pre-disposition that considers animistic knowledge and reasoning as inherently flawed.
• Animism is the notion that any living thing has a distinct spiritual essence.
• It’s a mistake to dismiss ǀXam cultural expression as a mythology that is intrinsically animistic and therefore quaint.

Soundscapes

• Sound plays a crucial role in the film, and was another opportunity to showcase an element of |Xam San culture.
• There we recorded a variety of rock sounds – deep bass-vibrations through to light metallic tinkles.

What next?

• !Aitsa had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in Denmark in 2023, with sold out screenings and rave reviews.
• The film won the Grand Prize at Estonia’s Pärnu International Film Festival and was voted Best of the Fest at the Encounters Film Festival in Cape Town.
• We also hope to take the film to Australia so that the Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal people can see, listen and connect with their counterparts in the Karoo.

• NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 10, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Songwriting Competition (ISC) has announced the winners of its 2022 competition, awarding top honors to a diverse group of talented songwriters from around the world.
• The annual competition, which is known for recognizing emerging and established songwriters, received more than 15,000 entries from 137 countries.
• ISC is pleased to award the gifted singer/songwriter Ondara its highest honor, the 2022 Grand Prize.
• We are very excited about this artist, and it is such an honor to award the ISC Grand Prize to him."

• NEW YORK, April 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh, star of the globally acclaimed Oscar-winning Best Picture "Everything Everywhere All At Once," will serve as Guest of Honor and Advisor at The Fifth Annual Meihodo International Youth Visual Media Festival , the premier platform for young visual artists and one of the largest short film festivals in the world.
• On Friday, April 28, Yeoh will appear during the festival's 2023 awards ceremony to share inspiring insights with the next generation of filmmakers.
• The ceremony will be held at the Meihodo Cultural Center in Fukuoka, Japan, and will premiere on YouTube on Sunday, April 30.
• "We're so excited to welcome the incredible Michelle Yeoh, fresh off of her historic Academy Award win," said Qing Su, Chairman of the Meihodo International Youth Visual Media Festival.