“Returned” wins Jury Award at the 2008 SVA/AAA Film, Video, and Interactive Media Festival

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: San Francisco, CA, June 06, 2008:
Peter Biella, Coordinator, Festival Jury contacted Brandon Kohrt to announce that the 2008 Film, Video and Interactive Media Festival jury has accepted his submission, “Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army”. The jury gave it their "Best Student Film" award out of 17 highly competitive graduate student films in the category. Peter expanded on some of the jury’s comments: The jury was impressed with the documentary’s thoroughness in reaching many types of children, and its investigation into the children’s past, present and future lives. Peter said that the jury felt that the cinematography was sensitive and professional. The jury found the voices of the children to be very eloquent and the film’s argument quite coherent. Each jury member was impressed with the consistency, parsimoniousness and ethnographic sensitivity that the film embodied.

The award ceremony will take place in San Francisco on November 19. Jurors will read prepared commendations for the winning films and show clips. Robert Koenig and Brandon Kohrt will be present to accept the award and speak to the audience about the film.

Clips from award winners will be shown Wednesday night in addition to their regular screening dates. “Returned” with be screened on Friday, November 21, 2008 at 11:40 AM. All award-winning films are followed by a 15 to 20 minute break so that, if filmmakers choose to be present, they may discuss their film with the audience immediately after it has been screened.

“Returned: Child Soldiers of Nepal’s Maoist Army” is a documentary video that follows several Nepali youths as they attempt to reintegrate back into civil society after their association with armed groups linked to the “People’s War.” The child soldier issue in South Asia is quite different than the child soldier issues in Africa and after the major conflict ended in Nepal. The film examines why children join armed groups and explores ways to prevent future recruitment by following the lives of two girl soldiers and two boy soldiers. The children describe how they became associated with the Maoist People’s Liberation Army during the 11-year civil war between the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoists and the government of Nepal. The children tell their individual stories, discussing both positive and negative aspects of their association with armed groups. These children are discovering quickly that the return home can be even more painful than the experience of war.