Awards

The First-Ever Cinema Eye Honors.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008 | 12:20 PM

Looking over the many documentarians in the crowd gathered at the first-ever Cinema Eye Honors for nonfiction film last night, awards co-chair AJ Schnack (himself a filmmaker) proclaimed "I don't see journalists, I don't see activists — I see filmmakers and I see artists." Not that there's anything wrong with journalism or activism, but it's a fair point — subject matter so often comes first and foremost when people look at a documentary film, and everyone working behind the camera is relegated to the role of a chronicler. One of the common themes of the evening, and one of the reasons the Cinema Eye Honors were created, was that nonfiction films deserve just as serious a consideration of their craftsmanship, of their art, as narratives, which is why there were awards given out for editing, cinematography and production, in addition to ones recognizing films and directors.

Over the course of two friendly and informal hours that featured presenters like recent Oscar-winner Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofski ("Metallica: Some Kind of Monster"), thoughts on the state of documentaries, the difficulties and making them and the frequent lack of recognition were unveiled, and nifty statuettes were dispensed. "Manda Bala (Send a Bullet,)" Jason Kohn's look at class issues, corruption and kidnapping in Brazil, walked away with the most awards — three, for editing, cinematography and overall outstanding achievement. The winners were selected by an invited pool of filmmakers, festival directors and distributors, with the exception of the audience award, which was determined by public vote and which went, appropriately, to the Seth Gordon's crowd-pleasing look at competitive video gaming, "The King of Kong."

After the jump, a complete list of winners and a way low quality video of Jason Kohn's funny and fervent acceptance speech for the night's big prize (that's Barbara Kopple presenting the award).