The Best Work in the Primary Category < The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize >
JAPAN PRIZE 2018 Prize Winners
The Best Work in the Primary Category
< The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize >
< The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Prize >
My Life
Born To Vlog
Born To Vlog
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Entering Organization | Blakeway North |  |
| Country/Region | United Kingdom | ||
| Media | TV |
(By Kez Margrie)
Just as Nikki Lilly has won the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of followers on YouTube, so she stole the hearts of the jury too. One juror described this film as a jewel, another said how much they would love to meet Nikki Lilly and give her a hug. But the Japan Prize is an Educational prize and we always kept this at the forefront of our minds during the judging process. We know that children run a mile if they feel they are being “educated” and we loved the subtlety of the many learnings that viewers could take from this documentary. Resilience, acceptance of self and others oh and a huge dose of extremely practical advice about how to vlog safely and ice a cake! It is a beautifully crafted piece with many stories woven into a whole and the director’s respect for Nikki shines through -this is Nikki’s’s film. She is totally in control as she shares her fears, her pain but also moments of sheer joy. So thank you Nikki for being such a strong role model for us all and for sharing your story. This was a worthy winner of the 2018 Japan Prize.
Winning the Japan Prize was an incredible honour, only equalled by Nikki allowing me to tell her story.
From start to end it was a collaboration and crucial that I listened to her ideas about how we should approach making this documentary. We used a mixture of observational footage, vlogs and her personal diaries, allowing her more ownership of the film and a raw, intimate insight into her life.
Whilst Nikki’s medical condition wasn’t the sole focus of the film, it does shape her experiences and therefore it was important to understand how she sometimes feels judged by others for the way she looks.