War Don Don Wins Award in Taiwan; Director Rebecca Richman Cohen Q&A in London

MercuryMedia title War Don Don has been awarded the Merit Prize in the International Feature Length Competition at the 7th Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF).

On announcing the award, the Taiwan Jury members commented:

“The Jury wishes to honour a film which mirrors for us how easily judgmental and self righteous we can become when we are only fed a sensational bias of mainstream news reportage. Instead, we are happy to award a documentary film which takes on the very complex process of bringing war criminals to trial in the special international Court for Sierra Leone, Africa. It is a film with unprecedented access, a film which is a portrait of a process, and a film which acknowledges all the ambiguities of such a trial. And it’s a film which, in a fair, objective and well structured way allows audiences to make up our own minds. The First Merit Prize goes to Rebecca Richman Cohen’s film WAR DON DON, from Sierra Leone.”

This win follows past prizes at SXSW 2010, where it won the Grand Jury award, and the New York Human Rights Film Festival, where it won the Cinereach award and Karen Schmeer Award for Excellence in Editing.

Director Rebecca Richman Cohen will be in London for a special screening and Q&A at the Frontline Club on Monday 1st November, 7pm. The filmmaker will also attend Sheffield Doc/Fest which runs 3-7 November.