“Winning awards from the U.S. International Film and Video Festival over three consecutive years has brought a certain Hollywood 'glitz and glamour' to Banking in Jamaica! Each year, the successes have been mentioned in both the Bank's AGM and Annual Reports.”
--Zoe Welsh, Programmes Production Specialist, The Bank of Nova Scotia Jamaica, Kingston (Multiple winner for “Street Smart Street Safe” Educational program)

    

2009 IQ One World Award

On August 12, Lee Gluckman of U.S. International Film & Video Festival, met with representatives of “Beyond Beliefs,” which won the One World Award, for a presentation of awards and preview of the film at Mercury Cinema in Adelaide, Australia.

Accompanying Gluckman was Donna Svanberg, who represented the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers, sponsors of the One World Award. Svanberg, owner and executive producer of Capitol Productions, Sydney, serves as vice president of communications for the IQ board.

Present at the event were filmmakers Bryan Mason and Sophie Hyde of Closer Productions, and Sarah Wishart, producer. Closer Productions produced “Beyond Beliefs,” which was sponsored by Issues Deliberation Australia/America (IDA). Representing IDA at the presentation were Toula Skiadas, Jillian Attrill, Moira and Tim Deslandes and Anna Burchett. A special guest  at the event was Gill Hicks of Adelaide, founder, M.A.D. for Peace.

‘BEYOND BELIEFS’ GOES TO THE HEART OF CHANGING VALUES

“Beyond Beliefs,” a documentary film about Muslim-non-Muslim conflict in Australia, was chosen for the One World Award in the U.S. International Film & Video Festival competition because it demonstrates that communication can alter ways in which different cultures view each other.
         
Judges from the International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers, which sponsors the award, noted the film addresses the “core of the award,” which is to foster greater world understanding about controversial issues.

One judge wrote:
“This show tackles a very delicate issue regarding global understanding, tolerance and prejudice. It was very well presented, easy to follow, intense and engaging.”

“Beyond Beliefs” grew out of a 2005 race riot in Sydney.

In December 2005, white Australians confronted Lebanese-Australians at Sydney’s Cronulla to “reclaim the beach.” The Cronulla Beach riots brought the country international attention with some people seeing the confrontation as a sign of a growing divide between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians.

The riots led many Australians to question their beliefs, values and way of life. The incident also brought Issues Deliberation Australia/America into the discussion (IDA).

IDA is a not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank founded to facilitate research, consultation, education and debate on social and public policy issues affecting Australia, America and the world.

IDA conducted a Deliberative Poll, a process that brings together randomly chosen people from all backgrounds to discuss, learn and question a particular issue, in this case their attitudes to Islam and Muslims.

Participants were polled twice to find out their opinions, both before and after they had an opportunity to gain information, question experts and discuss the issue with their peers. While Australia is seen as relatively harmonious, multicultural society, compared with many other places in the world, there was an undercurrent of hostility, fear and prejudice towards Muslim Australians.

“Beyond Beliefs” shows what happened when 376 Muslim and non-Muslim Australians came together to discuss their values and attitudes.

The film also reveals that after several weeks of the deliberative process where issues were discussed by natives and immigrants, questionnaire results indicated a considerable reduction in fear and prejudicial thinking by Australians.

“Beyond Beliefs” was produced by Closer Productions in Adelaide, a creative partnership between Bryan Mason and Sophie Hyde. Bryan edited the documentary, Sophie co-directed it, and an associate, Sarah Wishart, was co-producer. The film received a Silver Screen Award in the overall judging.

The festival attracted 1,000-plus entries from 22 countries. More information can be found at www.filmfestawards.com.

ABOUT IQ     
The International Quorum of Motion Picture Producers is a global organization of motion picture production company owners. It represents more than 80 members in 45 countries on six continents. IQ’s founding in 1966 grew out of vision of  North Carolina filmmaker Walter Klein who wanted to create a network to pool knowledge and resources on international productions.

The group has offices are in Zollikon, Switzerland, and Nashville, Tenn. The group established the One World Award in cooperation with Lee Gluckman, chairman of U.S. International Film & Video Festival and a member of IQ. For more information, visit www.iqfilm.org.

ABOUT IDA
The organization uses several trademarked leading-edge methodologies to achieve its goals, including Deliberative Polling, International Assemblies, National Assemblies, and “Future Perfect” Thinking. These methodologies are applied in both academic and applied fashion through quantitative and qualitative research and include a component of political psychology research.

IDA disseminates its research findings to Members of Parliament, government agencies, the general media, and professional organizations. Results also are distributed directly to the public through the organization’s publications, presentations, training programs and other educational forums. For information, visit www.ida.org.au.

ABOUT CLOSER PRODUCTIONS
Bryan Mason of Closer Productions works in documentary, drama, advertising, music video clips and dance and theater installation. He began by making skateboarding videos and has four skateboarding films independently distributed. His awards include Gold awards from the Australian Cinematographers Society (SA/WA/NT) in both drama and documentary cinematography. He recently completed editing the feature film, "My Tehran for Sale." Sophie Hyde has worked as a director and producer of documentaries, dance films, music clips, fashion and theater. As a video artist she has created work for many dance and text based performances. She is the director of the short drama "My Last Ten Hours With You" (formerly "Staying Up"), which won Best Direction, Best Drama and Best Film awards at the SA Short Screen Awards, Best Film at Mardi Gras and Melbourne Queer film festival (and audience award) and has screened at many festivals around the world, including Melbourne International Film Festival(AUS), Palm Springs Shortsfest (USA), Montreal World Film Festival (CAAN), and the Uppsala Short Film Festival (SWE).  For more information, visit www.closerproductions.com.au.