Baby Boomerang Wins “Best Documentary”
at Mormon Film Festival in Brussels
“Best Documentary” at Mormon Film Festival in Brussels
Friday, September 4, 2009
Claude Bernard is on a mission to bring LDS films to the French-speaking Mormon community. Claude heard about Baby Boomerang from LDS film director, Christian Vuissa (director of “The Errand of Angels” and many other LDS FIlms). Christian is a fan of Baby Boomerang and told Claude about it on a visit he made to Europe.
In April, Claude contacted Mark and asked him if he could show it at his upcoming festival. Mark was quick to agree. Then Claude added, “Do you have a script so that I can translate it into French?”
“Of course I have a script,” Mark responded, “But I don’t see how that will help as the script and the film don’t have that much in common.”
Mark started typing, and by July of 2009 he finished it and emailed it to Claude.
The screening of Baby Boomerang was on August 21, 2009 at the Brussels First Ward Chapel (but the Brussels Second Ward came too). The crowd was split evenly between French and English speakers. As people come into the building they picked up wireless headsets and then someone translates for whatever language is not being spoken at the time. When Baby Boomerang was shown, Claude sat with a microphone and translated with script in hand. Then he matched his translation to the film in real time.
“It was really interesting watching people who don’t speak English watch my film,” Mark recalls. “I was real nervous, but then the crowd started laughing in all the right places.” But then Mark adds, “Either Baby Boomerang has a universal appeal, or Claude was telling much better jokes than I had.”
Mark & Camille flew home to Arizona the day after the screening, and were pleasantly surprised to find out that Baby Boomerang had won “Best Documentary” at the festival (Christian Vuissa’s film, The Stonecutter, won Best Short Film). That makes four awards at seven festivals, but who’s counting?
“It has been great to see Baby Boomerang touch so many people,” Mark reflects. “Ceci est un grand honneur. Merci beaucoup.”
The Screening of Baby Boomerang at the Mormon Film Festival in Brussels. The film was translated into french and broadcast on headsets to the french-speaking audience.
Learn more about the Mormon Film Festival in Brussels HERE.
Film Festival Director, Claude Bernard with Mark Arnett after the screening of Baby Boomerang at the Mormon Film Festival in Brussels.
The screening (in English and French)
Of course, there where refreshments afterwards.
Mark answering questions after the screening
Special guest Thad Moyseowicz (USAG Brussels Public Affairs) was among the non-LDS guests who attended the screening. Here is what Thad recently emailed me:
BABY BOOMERANG really moved me. It's a story about a son learning (by the process of lengthy ferreting out- itself an interesting story) the true story of the extraordinary things his "ordinary" father
did during a few years as a participant in WWII. The father was not a famous general or highly decorated, well-known hero. He considered himself a pretty ordinary American who did his little bit.
Watching BABY BOOMERANG really brought forth to me just how extraordinary these "little bits" were, how the collective effort of all these "little bits" is what really won the war, and how much we owe our fathers.
Thanks for making it, Mark!
Mark’s cool euro shirt that he’ll probably never have the guts to wear in the States.
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