After a long journey, 21 residents and supervisors returned to care estate Mirre in Valthe this afternoon. The brand new winners of a film award at the Filmapalooza film festival in Los Angeles are still recovering from what they have experienced in the last few days.
The filmmakers were allowed to go to the United States after winning the 48Hour Film Project in Arnhem last year with the film One More Night. The film also won awards in Los Angeles. It won the award for ‘Best Use Line’ (phrase usage, ed.).
Mirre’s film team, which is called THNV media, is an outsider in the film world. The team from Valthe consists of teenagers who live on Zorglandgoed Mirre. They are young people with psychological, emotional and psychiatric problems. Young people who have lost (almost) all confidence in themselves, care and others.
At Mirre, the young people make films as one of the therapies. In front of the camera, they learn to show themselves and express their feelings. It gives young people a lot of self-confidence and improves the image they have of themselves. Moreover, it provides fun in life.
“It was bizarre in Los Angeles,” says Tobias, one of the filmmakers. “Everything was very big and exaggerated. It is very special that we have all been able to experience that.” Thanks to a fundraising campaign, the entire crew was able to go to Los Angeles. “We received tips from all kinds of people and followed workshops from professionals who have already had roles in larger films. We were also allowed to attend the first screening of a new cinema film, where the director and the stars were also present.”
But the cake is not finished yet. The Mirre care estate film team had also submitted another film to the Los Angeles festival. That movie, Ghost Writer, finished in the last eight of 78 submitted films and will be screened at the major Cannes Film Festival in May. “Here comes the crème de la crème,” says Anna, also one of the filmmakers. “All the famous people. And it is special that we can also experience that as a film crew. Hopefully we can build nice networks there and continue in the film world.”