Healthy workplaces in the spotlight as documentary film award winner revealed
News release - 27.10.2010
All That Glitters, a thought-provoking film about a worker in a goldmine in an inhospitable region of Kyrgyzstan, has been announced as the winner of the second Healthy Workplaces Film Award for the best documentary on work-related topics. The award is supported by the European Agency for Safety and Healthy at Work (EU-OSHA) as part of its mission of promoting safer and healthier workplaces in Europe.
Jukka Takala, Director of EU-OSHA, said All That Glitters was a worthy winner of the award as it highlighted the complexity of managing occupational safety and health in a high risk environment. The film explores the company’s relationship with the community against the backdrop of a decade-old environmental disaster of which repercussions are still being felt.
Upon accepting the trophy and €8000 prize at the 53rd International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, Tomas Kudrna, director of the winning film, said his film showed the importance of strict safety precautions when working at altitude with dangerous chemicals to extract gold from rock.
The seven thought-provoking films from international filmmakers which were nominated for the Healthy Workplaces Film Award this year dealt with both the physical, psychological and economic consequences of unfavourable working conditions. For example, the films showed workers at a shipyard in a time of crisis responding to the changing value of work, as well as portraying the story of a carrier in Mumbai whose lungs were destroyed by exhaust gases, while another entry took the form of an essay on the effects of longer working hours brought on by technology.
The nominated films were selected from 2813 documentaries from 97 countries submitted to DOK Leipzig this year. The 2009 award winner was the film A Blooming Business directed by Dutch director Ton Van Zantvoort, which shows the painful working conditions in a globalised flower industry.
Find out more about the Healthy Workplaces Film Award 2010 from our website at: http://osha.europa.eu/en/about/competitions/hw_film_award_2010
Notes to editors:
The mission of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) is to make Europe a safer, healthier and more productive place to work. EU-OSHA was set up by the European Union to help meet the information needs in the field of occupational safety and health. Based in Bilbao, Spain, EU-OSHA aims to improve the lives of people at work by stimulating the flow of technical, scientific and economic information between all those involved in occupational safety and health issues.
Now you can follow us on Twitter, visit the Agency’s blog or subscribe to our monthly newsletter OSHmail. You can also register for regular news and information from EU-OSHA via RSS feed.
Healthy Workplaces is the largest information campaign on occupational safety and health, running in all EU Member States and beyond to promote safe maintenance. Coordinated by EU-OSHA and its partners it supports a wide range of activities at the national and European level under the slogan “Healthy Workplaces. Good for you. Good for business”. http://hw.osha.europa.eu
DOK Leipzig, the largest German and second largest European documentary film festival will start its 53rd issue with an exciting program and attractive offers in its individual sections. True to its tradition as the “Window to the World“, the International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film again presents the best and latest animated and documentary films to its audience between 18 - 24 October 2010. The award ceremony takes place on 23 October 2010 in Leipzig, Germany. http://www.dok-leipzig.de
EU-OSHA is also supporting the International Film and Multimedia Festival at the XIX World Congress on Safety and Health at Work which will take place from 11-15 September 2011 in Istanbul.
All productions about safety and health at work (including films, drama, news, documentary, animation, spots, social media, multimedia, web or computer-based training and virtual reality applications) produced as from January 2007 are eligible for entry into the Festival. The closing date for submissions is 31 January 2011.
For details visit http://www.issa.int/8thIFMF.
Press inquiries
- Birgit Müller - International press +34 94 479 35 52 | news@osha.europa.eu
- Marta Urrutia - Spanish press +34 94 479 57 46 | noticias@osha.europa.eu
- Brenda O’Brien - Brussels Liaison Office +32 2 401 68 59 | obrien@osha.europa.eu
