The fourth annual SILVERDOCS: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival came to a close Sunday, with top honors going to Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s Jesus Camp, a fascinating look behind the scenes of an Evangelical Christian movement which molds young children into soldiers for Christ. Ewing and Grady now add a Sterling Feature Grand Jury Award to their previous SILVERDOCS Audience Award, for 2005’s Boys of Baraka.
Other award winners include: an Honorable Mention for Chairman George, which follows Greek-Canadian George Sapounidis on a quest to use his ability to sing in perfect Mandarin Chinese to live a more meaningful life; an Audience Award for Frank Popper’s profile of an idealist’s race for Congress, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?; and a Jury Award in the DOCS Rx category, which honors films that deal with global health issues, for Blood of Yangzhou District.
DCist had a great time at this year’s festival (though we still think it should be longer), so we thought we’d share some thoughts on a few of the films we saw, below. Feel free to add your own reviews of what you saw in the comments.
