VISIONS DU REEL NYON (SWITZERLAND)
INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL – April 24-30, 2006
www.visionsdureel.ch

INTERRELIGIOUS JURY

For the 2nd time an Interreligious Jury took part in the 12th International Film Festival Visions du Réel from April 24-30, 2006 in Nyon (Switzerland), supported by the Catholic Church in Switzerland and the John Templeton Foundation (USA). They regard the festival Visions du Réel to be an excellent platform for dialogue and debate between members of different religions coming from various cultural backgrounds.

Members of the jury were Charles Martig, Zurich (Switzerland), Saïda Keller-Messahli, Zurich (Tunisia/Switzerland), Robin E. Gurney, Beds (United Kingdom), Julia Helmke, Hannover (Germany), all nominated by the international film and media associations INTERFILM and SIGNIS.

The Interreligious Jury awarded its Prize, endowed with CHF 5’000 by the Catholic Church in  Switzerland and the John Templeton Foundation, to the film in competition

Voices of Bam
by Aliona van der Horst et Maasja Ooms, The Netherlands/Iran 2005

for reminding us, that after the news cameras have gone, natural disasters leave behind shattered lives to rebuild, difficult questions about God, and decisions to be made, physical and ethical tasks to endure, and losses to be mourned and remembered, as life goes on. The film impressed the jury by its artistic use of photos and voices which bring the dead back to us.

The Interreligious Jury awarded its Special John Templeton Prize for a film on Science and Religion, endowed with CHF 5’000 by the John Templeton Foundation, to the film in the section “Tendances”

Our Daily Bread/Unser täglich Brot
by Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Austria 2005
(www.OurDailyBread.at)

Showing the advanced use of technology to produce foodstuffs economically, this film brings us face to face with the exploitation of Creation and our relationship to the earth and its resources. Using images alone, the film opens up the possibility of an unending dialogue related to the industrial use of scientific progress, a lost paradise, and the need four our daily bread.

The members of the jury, from left: Charles Marig, Julia Helmke, Saida Keller-Messahli,
and Robin Gurney