Short Film Competition launches
7 July 2014
Short Film Competition launches
A short film competition with ‘stillness’ as its focus launches at the Film Archive in Wellington, New Zealand, on 7 July 2014.
“Create a short film between 30 seconds and two minutes long on the topic of ‘stillness’ – that’s the challenge we’re offering,” said Mark Sweeney, Co-Director of a new film festival, ‘Stillness, & The Moving Image,’ which will be taking place in Wellington, New Zealand, from 14–18 October, 2014.
“The winning film will be the one judged to have best captured the concept and will be screened at the Festival launch,” said Sweeney. “It will be screened before each feature film, along with a selection of others which have impressed the judges.”
“We welcome all genres of film, including animation and experimental,” said Sweeney. “The winning film will be announced and screened at the opening night launch, and if the winner is unable to attend in person we will Skype them in from wherever they are in the world,” he said.
Competition judges are actor Loren Taylor (Existence, Dancing in the Sky, Eagle vs Shark, Kombi Nation), director and producer Robin Greenberg (Huloo, He Waka Hono Tangata) and Festival Co-Director Mark Sweeney.
The closing date for submissions is 30 September 2014. Information on how to enter the competition can be found on the festival website at www.stillnesscommafilmfestival.co.nz.
“ ‘Stillness, & The Moving Image’,” said Ramsey Margolis, Festival Co-Director, “is a festival of films for people who have an interest in mindfulness, meditation, and a secular approach to Buddhism and other religious practices, films they might find nourishing.”
“We have selected films that we hope will encourage people to bring greater stillness into their lives,” said Margolis, “to be more mindful, awakening to the results that their actions and their intentions are having on themselves, on others, on the planet, and all beings on it.”
The festival will be taking place and the competition winner screened at the Film Archive, Taranaki Street, Wellington, New Zealand.
Mark Sweeney, Co-Director
For
the last 25 years, Mark Sweeney has worked in moving image
culture: as a film technician, high school Media Studies
teacher, and currently a curator and film archivist. His
interest is in how the moving image can help us make sense
of the world, or rather how media literacy can help us make
sense of media so we can make sense of the world, and be
mindful.
Ramsey Margolis,
Co-Director
Discovering stillness and the
strength that comes through silence in 1995, Ramsey Margolis
facilitates a group called Simply Meditation in Wellington
and runs a website for the country’s secular Buddhist
communities. With the intention of helping to create a
culture of generosity in Aotearoa New Zealand, he enjoys
seeing communities of practitioners spring into life and
develop.
Films to be screened in the festival
include:
• Buddhism Without Beliefs
• Gardening
With Soul
• Illustrious Energy
• Meditate and
Destroy
• Room to Breathe
• Tatarakihi: The
Children of Parihaka
The festival Co-Directors are very grateful to have received support from the following organisations.
CORE PARTNERS
Mental Health Foundation
of New Zealand
Secular Buddhism Aotearoa New
Zealand
The Film Archive
SILVER SCREEN
PARTNER
[Aotearoa Buddhist Education Trust –
TBC]
BRONZE RUPA PARTNERS
Mindfulness
Works
Recollective Awareness Meditation
Australia
Wellington Buddhist Centre
Wellington
Insight Meditation Community
and a number of individual supporters
ENDS