Barry Lank Memorial Award Winner: Cecilia Araneda
DOC Manitoba is pleased to announce the winner of the Barry Lank Memorial Award to Winnipeg-based Chilean-Canadian filmmaker and curator Cecilia Araneda for her documentary “Unarchive.” “Unarchive” juxtaposes the filmmaker’s father’s life with the political history of Chile – his birthplace – over the past century. It reflects on how we remember and how we forget, and the role of the camera in transcending the complex space in between.
The award provides a $1,500 cash prize for the winner. The award presentation and film screening will be held Sunday, July 30 at 1:30 PM at the Gimli Theatre in Gimli, Manitoba, as part of the Gimli Film Festival.
Winnipeg-based Chilean-Canadian filmmaker and curator Cecilia Araneda’s works have screened at venues such as Visions du Reél, Ann Arbor, Images, RIDM, Documenta Madrid, Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, Uppsala Short Film Festival, Bienal de la Imagen en Movimiento, TIFF Wavelengths, Film Anthology Archives and Maysles Documentary Center. Araneda’s debut feature film, Intersection (starring Carmen Aguirre), was released in fall 2022. Aesthetically, Araneda’s film practice is strongly rooted in the examination of private and public memory as it connects to identity, consciously working against the idea of the fully controlled image. Most well-known her work in analogue film, Araneda works in experimental, documentary and fiction forms. Araneda is also a nationally-recognized media art curator and is a past recipient of the national Canada Council for the Arts Joan Lowndes Prize for curation in the visual and media arts – the only prairie region curator to have ever received this prize. In 2005, she co-founded the WNDX Festival of Moving Image (jointly with filmmaker Solomon Nagler) and served as Executive Director of the storied Winnipeg Film Group / Winnipeg Cinematheque from 2006 to 2017, when she left the organization to focus on her independent filmmaking and curatorial practices. Araneda holds a BFA (hons) from York University and an MFA from the University of British Columbia.
About the Barry Lank Memorial Award:
The Barry Lank Memorial Award is presented by DOC Manitoba. The award is given to those who have shown exemplary work in the social awareness / social justice film genre as showcased in a particular documentary film. It is named in honour of Barry Lank CSC, a Winnipeg-born film director and producer. The award recognizes a documentary that embodies Barry’s dedication to the craft and passion for storytelling. Barry was a cornerstone of the entire Manitoba film business, it’s impossible to overstate how much he did, or the positive impact he had on so many people. He was always trusting, supportive, and open, a powerful presence in a very unassuming manner. The entire local industry would look very different without his participation, he was fundamental to shaping the way it is now, and the success of the entire production community owes a lot to the encouragement and appreciation he gave to so many young and aspiring crew members.
The Barry Lank Memorial Award is sponsored by Frank Digital, Merit Motion Pictures, and Luanne and Hannah Lank. Special thanks to the Winnipeg Film Group and Gimli Film Fest for assisting with the award.