Wwoofing by Robin Whenary picks up prize in India short film festival

By D+CFilm, on Tuesday, March 31, 2009

South Devon filmmaker Robin Whenary picked up second prize in the international section in the Short Film Festival of India for his naturalistic documentary Wwoofing.

One of the first festivals Robin’s film was submitted to was the Free Cinema section of the Two Short Nights film festival, sponsored by D+CFilm in 2007, and since then it has had an outing in most of the festivals in the area, along with others of Robins films.

Robin told D+CFilm: “I’m delighted. Wwoofing has been screened at festivals in many countries since its premiere at the D+C Film Free Cinema screening at the 2007 Two Short Nights festival, but to get an award for it is very nice indeed, particularly from a festival in Chennai – one of the creative centres of India.

“I’ve been pleasantly suprised each time it’s been accepted for festivals, because when filming it I had no idea what form the finished film would take, or if there would be one at all. Like a lot of documentaries, it only took shape during the editing.

“A good part of the award belongs to Stefan Van Oeckel, the Wwoofer, whom I had met by chance when he came over from Belgium to go wwoofing on organic farms in Devon and Cornwall in 2007. The film really turned out to be a portrait of him as much as anything else. I used Stefan’s camera to film it, and apart from some Mini-DV tapes, no money was spent at all – so it was almost literally a ‘no-budget’ film.

“Thanks also to Mark Simon, who let me film at Trevalon Farm, near Liskeard.”

Read the write up of the festival, where Robin’s name has been semi-Indianised – Whenraj.