An Australian documentary maker has won an award at Toronto’s Hot Docs documentary festival.
Australian film-maker David Tucker’s documentary My Thai Bride won best mid-length documentary at the festival, one of the most prestigious documentary festivals in the world, and North America’s largest festival.
The documentary, about the demise of 46-year old Welshman Ted’s marriage to a poor Thai bar girl.
On the film, Hot Docs jury said: “My Thai Bride is a film that takes the story of an unlikely couple and through subtle analysis extends their human dramas into a moving examination of political, cultural and economic power dynamics. It is a film that destabilises its viewer’s empathy through a nuanced and even-handed portrayal of charged, contradictory terrain, and reframes who exactly is the conqueror and conquered.”
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The film, by production company Showreal Productions, was both directed and produced by Tucker and written by Ashleigh Tucker.
The film was screened in the festival’s International Spectrum program and financed with assistance by Screen Australia.
Two other Australian films, Scarlet Road and Despite The Gods, were shown at the festival.