Editor

Silk Screen is proud to announce that the winner of this year’s RAGS Foundation People’s Choice Award is Bardsongs.

The People’s Choice Award is sponsored by the RAGS Foundation, which is a non-profit organization started by Sridhar and Gunjan Tayur located in Pittsburgh.

The 2012 7th Annual Silk Screen film festival was a hit with an increase in attendance from previous years. All films [except opening and closing night events] were given the opportunity to enter and each film screened was eligible to win the prize.

 
Bardsongs  Directed by Sander Francken
Netherlands, India, Mali
Starring:  Abba Bilancoro, Kolado Bocoum and Dhamender Singh
Festivals and Awards: London Asian Film Festival, and the Signis Award from the Washington D.C. International Film Festival
 
Driven by his curiosity in other cultures and the mysteries of human nature, Sander Francken delivers a captivating trilogy of folk tales. Each story is based on a folk song from a non-Western culture and shows that it is the old wisdom which unites people. A feast for the eyes and ears, this rare film is a three-part harmony of third-world stories. The tales are rooted in the Hindu culture in Rajasthan, the Muslim culture in Mali and the Buddhist culture in Ladakh. The musicians are nothing short of masters, featuring Rajastan stringed instrument players, a West African guitarist singing to the water at sunset, and a duet of singers in a tent in Ladakh (part of Kashmir in the Indian Himalayas)
Illustrating the ethnic tales of ancient oral tradition with loving and powerful directing while casting local actors from these far-away lands, Francken exemplifies “the contrast of transience and permanence, of the eternal and the ephemeral.”
2nd Place Mention goes to…..
Sunny   Directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol
South Korea
Starring: Yu Ho-jeong, Eun-kyeong Sim, Kim Min-yeong
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival, Korean Film Festival in Paris [Premier], London Korean Film Festival, Osaka Asian Film Festival

Like a South Korean version of Now and Then, the film Sunny flows through the past and present of seven women that recall and relive their high school glory days. Na-Mi works to reunite the members of her high school girl gang, “Sunny,” before the death of her friend Choon-Hwa.

Honorable Mention goes to….

The Frontline   Directed by Hun Jang
South Korea
Starring: Shin Ha-kyun, Ko-soo, Lee Je-hoon, Kim Ok-vin
Festivals and Awards: Busan International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, London Korean Film Festival, Spokane International Film Festival
 
In Panmunjeon, Korea 1953, the dramatic Korean War has finally reached an armistice. Only a single hill remains up for debate. The war is over, but one battle still continues. Hours before the official agreement is to be signed, one last attack is launched. Both North and South must fight to the death to control where the borders of the two countries will lay forever. [Official entry to the Motion Picture Academy's Foreign Film Category]