Saturday night, Patricia Bbaale Bandak was on stage in Toronto to receive the Special Jury Prize at North America's most important documentary film festival. Here it participated in the festival's international competition.
On Christmas Eve 1989, when film director Patricia was only two years old, her mother was killed by two gunmen in their home in Uganda. On Christmas Eve 2013, Patricia gave birth to a daughter whom she named Imelda after her mother. Now, more than 30 years after the killing, and after becoming a mother herself, Patricia is finally ready to return to her native country and look into her past. Throughout the film, Patricia attempts to find out who her mother was. However, cultural differences and the shadow of a brutal murder constantly looms over her journey. Her mother is described as a saint, but Patricia wants to understand who she really was as a person. Patricia must confront her traumas in order to set herself free from them.
"We're very proud and very happy that the film has won an award at Hot Docs. It's a great recognition and a fantastic start to the film's international festival tour," Patricia Bbaale Bandak tells and countinues:
"We're especially happy to see that the film seems to resonate with an international audience, as well as the Danish audience. During our Q&As, it was great to hear that the film's themes also resonated with a different, and older, audience than those who saw the film at CPH:DOX. The film is universal in its themes, but specific in the experience of loss far away from where you belong."
'Death of a Saint' is Patricia Bbaale Bandak's first feature-length documentary film. It is produced by Victor Cunha for Monolit Film with support from New Danish Screen by commisioning editor Christina Ramsø Thomsen. New Danish Screen is a funding programme under the Danish Film Institute that focuses on promoting talent development and supporting innovative film projects in Denmark.
'Death of a Saint' had its world premiere earlier this year at CPH:DOX
Hot Docs
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, better known as Hot Docs, takes place every year in Toronto, Canada. Hot Docs is North America's largest documentary film festival and is considered one of the most prominent of its kind in the world. It is an important platform for documentary filmmakers in relation to the North American market and serves as a meeting place for the international documentary industry. Hot Docs was founded in 1993 by the Documentary Organisation of Canada.
Last year, the Danish documentary 'The Mountains' by Christian Einshøj won two awards at the festival, including the grand prize Best International Feature Documentary Award.