JAPAN PRIZE 2016 Prize Winners

The Best Work in the Pre-school Category
< The Governor of Tokyo Priz e>
THE AMINA PROFILE
Entering Organization esperamos
National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Country/Region Canada
Media Film
(By David Squire)
The Amina Profile artfully and intelligently tells the real life story of internet hoax ‘Gay Girl in Damascus’, a fascinating and at times alarming story of online relationships, sexuality, politics and trust in the media. The film beautifully mixes documentary footage, imagined re-enactments and interviews with the willing contributions of those affected by the events, to take us on an intimate, challenging and thought provoking journey into issues of online identity and trust. It questions how we present ourselves online and how our personal and sexual relationships can play out in the digital age. It confronts our trust in digital media and journalism to tell us about our world. It makes us look again at complex political and social situations. By doing this, it offers a valuable aid to digital literacy for young adults, millennials and, in fact, anyone who uses the Internet. The JAPAN PRIZE jurors were left debating the rich layers of human experience the film makers so beautifully present to us.
(By Nathalie Cloutier)
We made The Amina Profile with the goal of critically examining both the way we consume news and stories brought to us by the media and the kind of access to reality they actually give us. The director, Sophie Deraspe, crafted the story, following Sandra’s journey and giving us an inside look at a personal drama that turned into a saga with universal significance. We always produce and create with the intention of affecting, challenging and maybe even changing the way audiences see and understand the world we live in. The JAPAN PRIZE underlines the educational purpose of storytelling and celebrates the bold intentions we had in making this film, and because of that it is the greatest honour we could receive. Receiving the award for Best Work in the Lifelong Learning Category was in itself a great honour, and receiving the Grand Prix was undreamed of—especially considering the high quality of the works in all categories. The production companies, Esperamos and the National Film Board of Canada, as well as the director, Sophie Deraspe, are humbled by this great award.

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