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ITAP MEMBER WINS PRESTIGIOUS AWARD!
August 13, 2007
Charlottetown's Beachwalker Films Wins Prestigious Golden Sheaf Award !
Charlottetown May 29, 2007- Beachwalker Films is pleased to announce that its production, Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny, has won the prestigious Golden Sheaf award at this year's Yorkton Short Film Festival. Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny is written and directed by Charlottetown based filmmaker Mark Sandiford in collaboration with Inuit satirist, Zebedee Nungak.
Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny is a comedic documentary that takes a look at white people through the eyes of the Inuit community. Qallunaat! (Pronounced roughly "Halunat" and is the Inuit word used to refer to White people), was produced by Charlottetown's Beachwalker Films in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada. Sandiford drew on his 16 years of personal experiences living and working in Canada's arctic. He turned the camera lens on this subject to make a film that explored why he and other white people seemed to be so amusing to the Inuit. The result turned out to be surprising and casts a whole new light on Canadian history and the relationship between Canadians and their Aboriginal community.
The Golden Sheaf award was presented at a ceremony Saturday night (May 26) in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Yorkton is Canada's oldest film festival. Celebrating its 60th anniversary the festival and awards enjoys legendary status in Canada's filmmaking community. Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny's win puts it among other notable productions made in Canada this past year. Other winners at Yorkton included The Danish Poet, Little Mosque on the Prairie and The Nature of Things. Qallunaat! won in the Best Aboriginal category.
Mark Sandiford moved to PEI with his family in 1998 and established Beachwalker Films in 2004. Sandiford was for many years a television producer at CBC both in the North and on PEI. Qallunaat! is his second film as an independent producer. His previous film, First Scientists, was an overview of aboriginal science and technology for Discovery Channel.
Qallunaat! Why White People are Funny was produced for CTV with the assistance of the Canadian Television Fund, TechPEI and Telefilm Canada. It is about to be released on DVD by the National Film Board and will be available to Canadians for purchase by calling 1-800-267-7710 or by visiting www.nfb.ca.
Qallunaat! will have its Charlottetown debut at City Cinema, 4 PM, Saturday June 23. It will be the featured screening of the day-long Celebration of PEI Film hosted by the Island Media Arts Coop.
For more information please contact:
Mark Sandiford
Beachwalker Films Inc
21 Grafton Street
Charlottetown, PE
C1A 1K6
(902) 629-4991 or mark@sandiford.ca
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