Laura Bari receives the 10.000 Euros "Talent Dove" for "Antoine"
Laura Bari is this year’s winner of the "Talent Dove" award of the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig. On Saturday evening, the Canadian director, born in Argentina, received the award from the hands of Dr. Harald Langenfeld, CEO of the Media Foundation and the Sparkasse Leipzig. The "Talent Dove", which is awarded in the framework of the "Generation DOK" competition, is salaried with 10,000 Euros.The prize money is used as a start up financing for the next film project.
Laura Bari was honoured for her moving film "Antoine" which reports of the great mission of a six-year-old blind boy in a sensitive way: he tries to clarify the disappearance of the mysterious Mrs Rouski who leaves desperate messages on his voicemail. The small blind protagonist has recorded the sound and partly worked with the camera. So, he and the director create the magical universe of a six-year-old. The international jury, which was occupied by Susanna Helke, Paola Castillo and Peter Wintonick, acknowledged the virtuoso interplay between sound and image as well as the humour and playfulness through which the director can make the invisible visible.
Laura Bari, who works for the Canadian children’s television and who now made her first film lasting a whole evening, asserted herself in the "Talent Dove" competition against 18 competitors from all around the world. A special mentioning went to "Side by Side" by Christian Sønderby Jepsen from Denmark.
Since 2004, the Media Foundation of Sparkasse Leipzig awards the "Talent Dove" as a promotion prize for young documentary filmmakers in the framework of the "International Leipzig Festival of Documentary and Animated Film".
In 2009, DOK Leipzig presented a total of 330 films from 69 countries. In its four competitions, the festival showed 83 new productions, including a number of world premières which were selected form 2,578 submissions from 108 countries.
Prize money in the amount of 67,000 Euros is awarded at the International Competition Documentary Film, the International Competition Animated Film, the German Competition Documentary Film and the International Talent Competition Documentary Film "Generation DOK."