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Media statement by Prof Pete Burnett at the Durban University of Technology

Local filmmakers win Best Adventure Film in world festival

Emerging filmmakers the Fisher brothers have produced an award winning film, ‘Halo Effect’ which recently won the Best Adventure Film in X-Dance, the biggest action sports film festival in the world. X-dance is the sports festival of the Sundance Film Festival

Dave Fisher has a BTech degree in Video Technology from the Durban University of Technology. Steve Fisher is a professional kayaker who has now turned film maker. They are both from East London, Eastern Cape. Dave was a part-time lecturer in DUT’s Video Technology Department in 2010. He is now in Uganda.

The film is about a kayaking adventure to the whitewater meccas of Iceland and Norway where the film was shot. It follows the action of running big waterfalls in kayaks, but also shows what goes on behind the scenes when things go wrong, and they do – broken bones and injuries, getting stuck on a mountain and having to be rescued and brushes with the law. The goal was to go run waterfalls. Everything that happens along the way is called the Halo Effect. The film shows the whole adventure and not just the kayaking.

“The inspiration behind doing this film came from wanting to combine our interests and experience both as athletes and film makers while being able to travel to interesting destinations. We wanted to produce a film that would appeal to kayakers and non-kayakers,” says Dave. The project took six months to complete.

Since this was their debut film, they were honoured just to be selected. “We weren’t expecting to win an award so it feels great to have done so.” Since they are emerging film makers, the recognition has gone a long way in getting their name heard. The film has generated a lot of interest in our direction, so having “X-Dance Winner” as a title really means a lot,” he added.

Describing the the X-Dance competition, Dave says it’s actually the sports corner of the Sundance Film Festival.
“Our goal was just to get into the festival, but we ended up winning Best Adventure Film and received six other category nominations as well,” he says. His brother, Steve was recently in Salt Lake City, Utah to collect the award.
“This is a huge achievement for us especially considering we are a two man team with such a low budget,” explains Dave.

Dave is excited that their work had more nominations than any other film at X-Dance. “ Life Cycle,’ naturally beat us in some big categories, but with no expectations we can’t believe how well received the film was,” he says. The awards ceremony in Park City was flawless with plenty of legends around and Ozomotli put on an amazing show for celebration.

The Fisher brothers are in and out of the country planning a film tour around the USA which they are hoping to shoot later this year.

Categories
‘Halo Effect’
WINNER Best Adventure Film
Nominated Best Director
Nominated Best Cinematography
Nominated Best Film overall
Nominated Best Documentary
Nominated Best Story Telling
Nominated Best Emerging Film Maker

The filmmaker Dave Fisher can be reached on:
Email: hotmancrazy@yahoo.com
Website: www.fishmunga.com
Link to the trailer on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk8puLJXuvU