More global awards for Why Democracy?

The award-winning documentary from the series, Iron Ladies of Liberia, is the opening film of the Encounters Documentary Film Festival which has moved on to Cape Town after flighting in in Johannesburg.

At the Banff World Television Award ceremony in Canada, 10 June, SA executive producer Don Edkins was presented the Best Political Documentary and the Best Documentary awards for Iron Ladies of Liberia. This film gives the viewer behind-the-scenes access to President Ellen Sirleaf's first year of government as the first elected female president in Africa. In her personal life, on the streets and in cabinet meetings, we see her and her other female leaders in action during their first year of democratic rule after nearly two decades of civil war.

Two days later on 12 June, at the One Wold Media Awards in London, Iron Ladies of Liberia was presented with the Millennium Development Goals Award. This award is for ‘outstanding broadcast, print or new media coverage which addresses directly the progress or challenges in meeting the ambitious blueprint for international development, the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) covering issues such as health, education and poverty' and is supported by the EU.

The citation from the jury said, “This was a unanimous first choice. We all admired the great access, used with intimacy as well as respect. The jury was especially impressed by the great casting of diverse personalities who were all zealous and committed in pursuing change. Also, it is vary rare to have a film about governance, let alone one that was so well made and one that was such compelling viewing.”

Last week, the Why Democracy? Project was awarded the Golden Link EBU Documentary Coproduction Award at the Sunny Side of the Doc in La Rochelle, France, by the European Broadcasting Union. The EBU Golden Link Award was created six years ago to celebrate the best documentary developed through the two annual EBU Documentary Group meetings and co-produced by two or more EBU member broadcasters. The previous STEPS documentary project, Steps for the Future, received this award in 2002.

Why Democracy? is allegedly the world's largest ever multi-media factual event and multi-award winning series, which has used documentary film to start a global exchange about democracy. Last year, during October, more than 45 broadcasters worldwide screened 10 documentary films in 180 countries to an audience of over 300 million people.