"WALKING UNDER WATER" AWARDED AT HOT DOCS!

The Canadian festival Hot Docs announced the list of awarded films. The latest film by Eliza Kubarska "Walking Under Water" was given the Special Jury Prize for International Feature Documentary at the Hot Docs.

Although the official closing ceremony of Hot Docs takes place on 4th May, the award ceremony was held a day earlier. During the ceremony, which was organised in the hotel Windsor Arms in Toronto, the festival jury presented thirteen awards with a total value of 66 000 dollars to Canadian and international filmmakers. The Canadian festival was certainly successful for Eliza Kubarska. For her film, "Walking Under Water" the director was given the Special Jury Prize for International Feature Documentary, which amounts to 5000 dollars.

Badjao - the protagonists of the film by Eliza Kubacka - are the community of sea nomads, living in the areas between the Philippines, Borneo and Indonesia. For centuries they live like fish, spending most of their lives under water. The Badjao children learn to swim faster than to walk, and the adults perfected the difficult art of free-diving. They can walk and hunt at the bottom of the ocean, holding their breath for many minutes. Their lives change in a rapid way in the clash with the modern civilisation. The islands where they lived for hundreds of years (and where they drew water) are sold for exclusive luxury hotels. Badjao are not admitted there. They are driven out to the slums, located around cities, and inevitably lose their skills. 10-year-old Sari starts training under the guidance of his uncle Alexan, the last deep-sea diver (the so-called 'compressor diver') on the island of Mabul. Alexan decides to pass his skills on to Sari, because he cannot come to terms with the thought that under the influence of the Western civilisation, the world of his ancestors disappears. He teaches him not only the difficult art of diving with the use of tube and air compressor, but also reveals to him magical legends and customs of the Badjao.

The Canadian festival Hot Docs is one of the most important festivals in the world and the largest documentary film festival in the North America. The first edition was held in Toronto in 1993 and since then, the festival has been constantly growing. It is worth adding that this year, in various competition sections, the following three films took part, in addition to "Walking Under Water": "Fire-followers" by Karolina Breguła, "The Supreme" by Katarzyna Gondek and "Domino Effect" by Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski.

The full list of the films awarded at Hot Docs can be found here.