July 28, 2009
Crossing Midnight wins "Excellence in Short Filmmaking" at the 2009 Asian American International Film Festival
Crossing Midnight won the Excellence in Short Filmmaking honor after being screened on July 25th at New York's Asian American International Film Festival 2009 (AAIFF), a pioneering festival devoted to showcasing films created by media artists of Asian descent and about the Asian community. This year, the festival reached an audience of more than 7,000 over its four days, and hundreds of thousands more viewers and readers through a follow-up National Festival Tour and local, national and international media coverage.
"Kim Snyder's documentary on the efforts of health workers to treat Burmese refugees deals with the issue of human rights through the lens of medicine." Read more at the festival's official website.
"Last year, Sylvester Stallone's fourth installation of Rambo fired a salvo of ultraviolent media at the state of repression and ethnic cleansing in Burma. Crossing Midnight, one of the highlights of AAIFF's short documentary selection, does not take John Rambo's presence lightly, in one scene pointing the camera at a group of volunteers rapt at the musclebound actor liberating cinematic representations of themselves onscreen.
Kim Snyder's focus reaches more deeply than Hollywood's, centered not on blood warriors but on health workers who work to provide basic care to those scarred and abandoned by the Burmese government. Crossng Midnight reflects the tides of Burma through the profession of medicine, particularly those doctors who risk everything for the sake of preserving life.
Through it all, life remains at the center of the film; life supersedes politics and morality as the documentary's muse. Using candid footage and a series of simple and clear interviews with doctors, organizers, students, volunteers, villagers and refugees, Snyder captures her subject in gripping detail and delivers a powerful message about human rights."
Read more about the Festival at AAIFF's Website.
Related: Crossing Midnight, Honors and Awards, Human Rights in Burma, Upcoming Films
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