South African finalist in Commonwealth Vision Awards
Marie-Lais Emond and Philip Schedler have reached the finals in the Commonwealth Vision Awards with their script and one-minute video on Emmelinah Sindane, an HIV-positive resident at Nkosi's Haven in Johannesburg, who ran the Comrades this year after taking up running in her forties.
The contest theme this year was 'Health and Vitality - the Commonwealth Challenge. "I used her own words for this, as they were perfect for the message. English is her second language, as it is for most people in South Africa, and I didn't want to change it into anything else - I just edited her story to create a script," said Emond.
Broadcasters and independent filmmakers from all over the world submitted entries and the winning works will be broadcast internationally, particularly on Commonwealth Day in early 2006.
Philip Schedler, a stills and video photographer and Marie-Lais Emond, a writer and editor, have collaborated on a number of projects. Some of the post-production was done by Betta Beta Communications with sound engineer Greg Kietxmann.
