Top Film Award for Mine Union

Date: 02 May 2011

In an international competition that attracted more than 4,200 entries from film makers all over the world, the Mineworkers Trust documentary Last Stand at Nymboida won the 2011 Special Jury Award at the recent WorldFest International Film and Video Awards Gala in Houston, Texas. This is the highest Award granted to an entry in the Documentary Category.

WorldFest is a prestigious international film festival boasting among its previous winners Steven Speilberg, George Lucas, the Coen Brothers, Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott, James Cameron and many more legendary directors of the big screen. The special guest this year was previous winner Randal Kleiser who directed Grease, Blue Lagoon, Honey I Shrunk the Kids and lots of other big studio movies.

These high profile previous winners are testament to the pedigree of WorldFest. While Feature Films was the main event, the Documentary section was one of the most hotly contested with hundreds of entries from well-established and highly resourced production companies all over the world competing. These included documentaries commissioned for broadcast by major TV stations in Europe, Asia, North America and Latin America as well as docos by some heavy hitting independent production companies from LA, London and Paris.

In the face of such high profile global competition, for the Mineworkers Trust's Last Stand at Nymboida to be selected as one of the five finalists in the Documentary category was an incredible achievement in itself.

The Awards were presented to the various category winners starting with the Bronze, that I was sure we were going to get. However, as the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum winners were announced and Last Stand at Nymboida was not among them, I really thought that we had missed out and that my wife Elinor and I had travelled all that way on a misunderstanding.

However, with these four award categories concluded a break was called and when the Festival organiser returned to the stage he announced that the major awards in each category were to be presented. You could have knocked me over with a feather when we were called to the stage to receive the 2011 Special Jury Remi Award - the highest award in the Documentary category at WorldFest.

This Award follows the two other international film awards Last Stand at Nymboida won recently at the Indie Fest in California - an Award of Excellence for Documentary and an Award of Merit for History.

Personally, I think there are three main factors that combined to make Last Stand at Nymboida such an international success.

1. The uniqueness of the story itself and the wonderful people who were featured in the film telling it how it was.
2. The faith and confidence the Mine Workers Trust showed in the project by funding it as a quality High Definition documentary. Andrew Vickers and Tony Maher, with the support of the Northern District's Peter Jordan and Grahame Kelly, were responsible for this. Andrew, in particular as Chairman of the Trust, played a vital role in backing the creative team at times during the production when there were serious differences of opinion over the direction the film was taking.
3. We had a terrific creative team who each put in much more than they were obliged to do. They were so inspired by the story and the quality of the people in it that they continually went that extra mile every time.

Finally, as Executive Producer, I want to pay tribute to my co-writer and our Director Jeff Bird whose demanding high standards, creativity and absolute commitment ensured that he and I, in partnership, made Last Stand at Nymboida the film that the people of Nymboida and the Mineworkers Trust deserve.

You can buy a copy of the film from at the CFMEU's online Shop http://cfmeu.com.au/shop

Also, learn more about the film and Nymboida at http://www.nymboidadoco.com.au/

For further information

Contact:	Paddy Gorman
Union:	CFMEU Mining and Energy Division
WWW:	http://www.nymboidadoco.com.au/

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