2017 SOLID SCREEN Awards
2016 SOLID SCREEN Awards
2016 Sea Stars SCREEN Awards
2015 SOLID SCREEN Awards
SOLID Screen Trail Blazer - Essie Coffey [R.I.P.]
SOLID Photographer - Barbara McGrady
SOLID Screen Makers - Nanobah Becker and Tracy Rector
SOLID Arts Leadership - Whetu Fala
SOLID Contribution to Screen Culture - Rena Owen
SOLID Photographer - Barbara McGrady
SOLID Screen Makers - Nanobah Becker and Tracy Rector
SOLID Arts Leadership - Whetu Fala
SOLID Contribution to Screen Culture - Rena Owen
The SOLID Awards for Indigenous women in Screen value women with long-standing and also emerging careers in the screen arts both in Australia and overseas. The aim is to honour women who have long standing and emerging careers in the variety of roles that make up the Screen Arts, those who have cut a track here and overseas. This is an important way of acknowledging historically significant contributions over the past 30 - 40 years and also a very rare opportunity to celebrate the current outstanding practice offered by Indigenous Women Screen-makers. This is the second year of the SOLID SCREEN Awards and categories this year include Historically SOLID Screen Trail Blazer, SOLID Contribution to Photo Media, SOLID Screen Storyteller, SOLID Screen Artist, SOLID Screen Curator, SOLID Screen Festival Director and SOLID Arts Leadership.
The 2015 Historically SOLID Screen Trail Blazer is a posthumous Award that goes to Koori film maker Essie Coffey who, in 1978 made My Survival as an Aboriginal, which she gave to Queen Elizabeth II as a gift at the opening of Australia's new Parliament House in 1988. The film rocked Australia and the world with its presentation of atrocities and hardships committed against Aboriginal people. It delves beneath surface appearances to reveal a strong resistance to assimilation and loss of identity, as the late Essie Coffey, a Murrawarri woman, takes us into the Aboriginal struggle for survival. She documented the effect of dispossession, the chronic depression, alcoholism, deaths in custody and poverty that were so much a part of life for Aboriginal people. The sequel, My Life As I Live It, was released in 1993. Coffey also appeared in the film Backroads and in her later years, Essie developed renal failure and became the subject of the film Big Girls Don’t Cry, by Aboriginal filmmaker Darren Ballangarri. She passed away on January 3rd, 1998.
Other SOLID Award winners for 2015 are Koori photographer Barbara McGrady who is a Gamilaroi Murri yinah (woman) from the north west of NSW and Southern Queensland. A Sydney based photographer, Barbara's images tell the story of contemporary Aboriginal history through her unique sociological eye. Barbara describes herself as an observer and a protagonist - a 'documentarian' of historical events that are important to Aboriginal culture and people.
A SOLID Screen Maker Award goes to Nanobah Becker who is a member of the Navajo Nation and received a BA in Anthropology from Brown University. She spent several years working with Native youth both at the Navajo Nation and in Albuquerque at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute before deciding to pursue filmmaking, and is now currently living and working in Los Angeles, California.
Another SOLID Screen Maker Award goes to Tracy Rector a Seminole/Choctaw film maker based in Seattle. Tracy earned her Masters in Education from Antioch University’s First Peoples Program. She specialized in Native American Studies, traditional plant medicine and documentary film. As the producer and director of many award-winning films Tracy has developed an awareness and sensitivity to the power of media and film as a modern storytelling tool.
Maori actress Rena Owen will receive the SOLID Contribution to Screen Culture Award, as she became one of New Zealand’s most successful and recognizable Actors on the international film platform following her performance as Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors and for the last 10 years,
The 2015 Historically SOLID Screen Trail Blazer is a posthumous Award that goes to Koori film maker Essie Coffey who, in 1978 made My Survival as an Aboriginal, which she gave to Queen Elizabeth II as a gift at the opening of Australia's new Parliament House in 1988. The film rocked Australia and the world with its presentation of atrocities and hardships committed against Aboriginal people. It delves beneath surface appearances to reveal a strong resistance to assimilation and loss of identity, as the late Essie Coffey, a Murrawarri woman, takes us into the Aboriginal struggle for survival. She documented the effect of dispossession, the chronic depression, alcoholism, deaths in custody and poverty that were so much a part of life for Aboriginal people. The sequel, My Life As I Live It, was released in 1993. Coffey also appeared in the film Backroads and in her later years, Essie developed renal failure and became the subject of the film Big Girls Don’t Cry, by Aboriginal filmmaker Darren Ballangarri. She passed away on January 3rd, 1998.
Other SOLID Award winners for 2015 are Koori photographer Barbara McGrady who is a Gamilaroi Murri yinah (woman) from the north west of NSW and Southern Queensland. A Sydney based photographer, Barbara's images tell the story of contemporary Aboriginal history through her unique sociological eye. Barbara describes herself as an observer and a protagonist - a 'documentarian' of historical events that are important to Aboriginal culture and people.
A SOLID Screen Maker Award goes to Nanobah Becker who is a member of the Navajo Nation and received a BA in Anthropology from Brown University. She spent several years working with Native youth both at the Navajo Nation and in Albuquerque at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute before deciding to pursue filmmaking, and is now currently living and working in Los Angeles, California.
Another SOLID Screen Maker Award goes to Tracy Rector a Seminole/Choctaw film maker based in Seattle. Tracy earned her Masters in Education from Antioch University’s First Peoples Program. She specialized in Native American Studies, traditional plant medicine and documentary film. As the producer and director of many award-winning films Tracy has developed an awareness and sensitivity to the power of media and film as a modern storytelling tool.
Maori actress Rena Owen will receive the SOLID Contribution to Screen Culture Award, as she became one of New Zealand’s most successful and recognizable Actors on the international film platform following her performance as Beth Heke in Once Were Warriors and for the last 10 years,
2015 BLAK RELEASE Screen Festival Awards
2014 SOLID SCREEN AWARDS
In 2014 The SOLID SCREEN Festival also kicked off the inaugural SOLID Awards for Indigenous Women in Screen which honoured those women who have long standing and also emerging careers in the screen arts, those who have cut a track here in Australia and overseas. This was an important way of acknowledging artists, curators and other arts leaders who have contributed substantially to their respective industries over the past 30 - 40 years, and also a very rare opportunity to celebrate the current outstanding practice offered by Indigenous Women Screen-makers, and included the following categories:
Historically SOLID Screen Trail Blazer - Hyllus Marus
SOLID Contribution to Photo Media - Destiny Deacon
SOLID Screen Storyteller - Darlene Johnson and Michelle Derosier
SOLID Screen Artist - r e a
SOLID Screen Curator - Christine Peacock
SOLID Screen Festival Director - Janina Harding
SOLID Arts Leadership - Lori Blondeau and Denise Bolduc
Contribution to Screen Arts - Ariel Smith and Hiona Henare
see more info about the 2014 award winner at this page
Historically SOLID Screen Trail Blazer - Hyllus Marus
SOLID Contribution to Photo Media - Destiny Deacon
SOLID Screen Storyteller - Darlene Johnson and Michelle Derosier
SOLID Screen Artist - r e a
SOLID Screen Curator - Christine Peacock
SOLID Screen Festival Director - Janina Harding
SOLID Arts Leadership - Lori Blondeau and Denise Bolduc
Contribution to Screen Arts - Ariel Smith and Hiona Henare
see more info about the 2014 award winner at this page
