Documentaries broadcast by Channel 4’s Dispatches documentary strand collected two of the four awards on offer last night at the annual Rory Peck Awards.
Afghan-Brit Najibullah Quraishi was presented with the features award for Behind Enemy Lines, a film for Dispatches documenting ten days he spent embedded with Hezb-i-islam insurgents in Afghanistan in 2009.
Judges praised Najibullah’s documentary for its integrity and ‘warts and all’access the filmmaker gained to the insurgents and their activities.
A previous winner in 2002, Najibullah is the first person to win two Rory Peck Awards for different films.
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British director and cameraman Nick Read was awarded the Sony Professional Impact Award for Slumdog Children of Mumbai.
Shot over three months through the Monsoon, the Dispatches film captures the reality of life for four children living in the slums – judges praised Read’s exceptional camerawork, describing the film as ‘deeply moving and profoundly shocking”.
US photojournalist Roger Arnold collected the news award at last night’s ceremony for Bangkok Street Protests, a film he shot for WSJ.com detailing events in Bangkok during the final week of the anti-government protests in May 2010.
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This award marked the first time footage produced and broadcast solely for the web had won a Rory Peck Award, which aim to recognise the achievements of freelance cameramen and camerawomen working in international news and current affairs.
Mexican freelance cameraman Arturo Perez was is recipient of the 2010 Martin Adler Prize at the ceremony last night at the BFI Southbank in London.
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