N.Z. film wins award

Press, 5 December 1988, Page 2

N.Z. film wins award

NZPA-AP Honolulu “Illustrious Energy,” a New Zealand film about Chinese immigrants prospecting for gold in the 1890 s, has won the EastWest Centre Award at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

The award is given to a film that “best promotes the festival goal of promoting understanding among the people of Asia, the Pacific and the United States.”

The annual festival is the eighth to be sponsored by the East-West Centre at the University of Hawaii.

The film’s director and co-writer, Leon Narbey, was also honoured during the awards ceremony with the Eastman Kodak Award for cinematography, for his earlier work as a cinematographer. The winning film was selected by a five-mem-ber panel including Edward Yang, a prizewinning Taiwanese “new wave” director whose films have been shown at past festivals; Lester James Peries, the acclaimed Sri Lankan film director; Tadao Sato, the respected film critic and scholar from Japan; Nadia Tass, the Australian actress and singer; and Richard Schickel, movie reviewer for “Time” magazine since 1972.

The other entries for the East-West Centre award were:

• “Rouge,” a stylish mystery and love story from Hong Kong, directed by Stanley Kwan. • “A Taxing Woman’s Return,” the sequel by Japanese director, Juzo Itami.

• “The Year My Voice Broke,” an Australian coming-of-age drama written and directed by John Duigan. • “The Return,” an Indian film written and directed by Buddhadeb Dasgupta. For the first year, an East-West Centre documentary award was also made, going to “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” The co-directors, Renee Tajima and Christine Choy, were present to accept the honour.