High Falls International Film Festival Announces 2009 Audience Award Winners and a new director
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on May 28, 2009 under Rochester High Falls International Film Festival | 
The Rochester High Falls International Film Festival has named John Richardson as its new executive director. Richardson was president of the festival’s board of directors from 2002 to 2009 and was previously a public affairs director at Eastman Kodak Co.
The festival which ran May 13 - 18 earlier announced its audience award winners.
Audience Award Winner Best Feature: Skin
- Skin, directed by Anthony Fabian
Anthony Fabian’s debut feature tells the extraordinary true story of Sandra Laing, whose experiences with South African apartheid expose the depth of that vile system’s insanity. Although the biological daughter of a white couple, she was born with undeniably black features, hair, and “colored” (according to apartheid’s taxonomy) skin, a genetic phenomenon explained in the film. Her case became a national cause celebre when her parents asked the Supreme Court to classify her as “white.” Because apartheid laws forbade people of different races living together, they risked losing her if the court refused. But when white society rejected her, and she fell in love with black man, she fought to change her classification to “colored.” Featuring brilliant performances by Sam Neill and Alice Krige as her complex, torn, often misguided parents, and Sophie Okonedo (so memorable in HOTEL RWANDA) as Sandra (who still lives in South Africa), SKIN is a not-to-be missed experience.
Audience Award Winner Best Documentary: Signs of the Time
Imagine watching one of baseball’s earliest games, in the presence of thousands of fans but without the benefit of hand signals on the diamond that guide us through the modern game. There were no signals for strike, safe, out or foul and no announcer to interpret the game. The only signal was the umpire’s voice, consumed by the roar of thousands of excited fans. How did the signals of baseball originate? Like the origins of the game itself, the genesis of baseball’s greatest innovation is steeped in legend and fraught with polarizing opinions. SIGNS OF THE TIME is a painstakingly researched baseball documentary that was shot on location in eight states, featuring interviews with many baseball greats and re-enactments of scenes from old-time baseball games. The film explores the origins of this pivotal innovation and the baseball pioneers that shaped the course of the game and history. If you like a story about history, mystery and human achievement, you are sure to enjoy.
Audience Award Winner Best Short: JULIE, JULIE
