STONE BY STONE: Special Mention Winner

 

39e Festival international de cinéma Vues d’Afrique

STONE BY STONE

Special Mention - Human Rights Category

April 30, 2023

The documentary film Stone by Stone was awarded the Special Human Rights Mention Prize at the festival's closing ceremony, held at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal on April 30, 2023. Although the Award document for this exceptional film (see the photo at the top of this article) mentions only one name, it was in fact produced by three Co-Directors: Elisabeth Gimber, Robert Newton and Mark Morgenston. The film is a result of a truly equal team effort. 

The film highlights two middle-class families, one in Burkina Faso, the other in North America, who envisioned and then embarked on a seemingly impossible project to build an orphanage and a school in Africa without any government support, corporate sponsorship, or grants. And they succeeded, relying solely on their own efforts, the help of their extended families, their fiends, and communities. You can read more about this extraordinary story and the remarkable film here.

The Makofskys, the North American family featured in the documentary, were present at the second screening of the film on April 29, 2023. Their presence, when announced, was greeted by a vigorous and prolonged clapping. An equally long clapping followed when the film ended.

2 Co-Directors Robert Newton and Elisabeth Gimber presenting the film to the audience.

The Makofskys on the left next to the production team: 3 Co-Directors Elisabeth Gimber, Robert Newton & Mark Morgenstone.

Q&A with the 3-member film production crew in the middle and Howard Makofsky on the right.

After the screening, the Makofskys and the film’s production crew were approached by the audience with many comments and complements, and with a number of questions about the film's true story and the specifics of the film production. A formal Q&A session followed in the area set for it outside the projection theatre. The types of questions asked revealed people's keen interest in the film's subject matter and the issues it raised.

The Makofskys interacting with the audience:

Click on images to enlarge them.

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.