Congrats to our members Lynda Chanwai-Earle and Jo Luping, their film I Duok Om I Bohuntung, The Owl and The Rainbow just won the Animated Short Award at the Toronto imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts festival!
Here's a quote from Jury Member Stephan Sloane, Head of Animation at Blue Ant Media:
“The jury awards this film for its deep and tender portrayal of a Mother’s love in the face of depression.
Through rich, textured animation and emotionally resonant imagery, the film captures the gradual dimming of a child’s inner world, while illuminating the care and quiet strength and transformation required to guide her back to the path towards hope. It transforms a deeply personal story into something profoundly universal.
The emotional honesty and powerful expression of healing through animation, the Animated Short Award goes to I Duok Om I Bohuntung, The Owl and The Rainbow, directed by Jo Luping.”
It takes a tonne of talented people to create an animated short and the LionFish would like to thank all those involved. Thank you to the New Zealand Film Commission and Script To Screen for supporting this project. Thanks as well to the Miramar Creative Centre, Kadazan Language Foundation and Shuchi Kothari and the Pan-Asian Screen Collective.
Special thanks to Miranda Harcourt for generously workshopping the actors, Lala Rolls and Mel at the MCC, Liz Mullane and Rachel Bullock for their wonderful casting support, Dr Jennifer Cattermole for her performance of Taonga pūoro, Briar Grace-Smith and Duncan Sarkies our script advisors, Rita Lasimban and Dion Hitchens - our Kadazan and Māori language and cultural advisors respectively.
A finally - of course - a huge thanks especially, to cast and crew.