BLACKHORSE LOWE'S "SHIMÁSÁNÍ" AND PHILIPP ABRYUTIN'S "IVAN AND IVAN" WIN AWARDS AT FESTIVAL PRÉSENCE AUTOCHTONE/MONTRÉAL FIRST PEOPLES' FESTIVAL

BLACKHORSE LOWE'S "SHIMÁSÁNÍ" AND PHILIPP ABRYUTIN'S "IVAN AND IVAN" WIN AWARDS AT FESTIVAL PRÉSENCE AUTOCHTONE/MONTRÉAL FIRST PEOPLES' FESTIVAL

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June 19, 2010 (Montréal, Canada) - At the Awards Ceremony held at the McCord Museum, Montréal First Peoples' Festival organized by Terres En Vue/Land In Sights announced Philipp Abryutin's IVAN AND IVAN as the winner of the TEUEIKAN GRAND PRIZE for best short film and Blackhorse Lowe's SHIMÁSÁNÍ as the winning film for best cinematography in the award MEILLEURE DIRECTION PHOTO yesterday in Canada!

"Black and white is an apt choice for Navajo country and the austere majesty of its unattainable horizons. For quenching our thirst for departures and depicting a ponderous reality in the pulsating light seeping into the hogan and shining in the pasturelands, the 2010 First Peoples Festival awards SMOKEY NELSON the BEST PHOTO DIRECTION prize for SHIMÁSÁNÍ by BLACKHORSE LOWE." (-Montréal First Peoples' Festival) SHIMÁSÁNÍ had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, was screened at the Academy nominating festival-LA Shorts Fest and at the competitive Sundance Film Festival.

"For the strong impact of a concise, controlled story line accurately depicting the intergenerational and identity-based laceration so many First Peoples suffered when their children were torn from their natural milieu in the name of progress, and for a strong work of art in which a young director is already affirming an authentic filmmaker's signature, the 2010 First Peoples Festival awards the TEUEIKAN GRAND PRIZE to a short film that has a lot more to say than many longer films: IVAN AND IVAN by PHILIPP ABRYUTIN." (-Montréal First Peoples' Festival) IVAN AND IVAN had its world premiere at the Tromsø International Film Festival in January and its USA Premiere at the prestigious Documentary Fortnight at the Museum of Modern Art in February this year.

PHILIPP ABRYUTIN (Chukchi) was born in 1986 in the Chukotka region of Russia. His parents Larisa and Mikhail Abryutin were doctors in a mobile medical group dedicated to traveling the tundra and coasts of Chukotka to treat patients living outside cities and villages. When he was thirteen, his parents moved to Moscow to further their careers and by the time he was fourteen he won an international writing competition in which excerpts from this story have been published in magazines and newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune, the Ford Report and Russia's Northern Lights magazine. Since then, he has received his Masters from the famous VGIK/All-Russian State University of Cinematography whose faculty and alumni include Russian film greats Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevolod Pudovkin, Alexander Sokurov and Andrei Tarkovsky. His Master's film project in 2008, "Prevention of Repeated Crimes" won several awards at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival including the Spectator Award given to the best student film. Currently he works in Russian television and is pursuing his Ph.D in Film Dramaturgy at his alma mater.

BLACKHORSE LOWE (Navajo), whose roster of films includes his first feature film which showcased at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, "5th World" and his debut short film, "Shush" that screened at the festival in 2004. Lowe was the recipient of the 2007 Renew Media Grant for his screenplay "Left-Handed Path," a project he also work-shopped as a fellow of the 2006 Sundance Writer's and Producer's Lab. "Shimásání" recently screened at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, Academy Award nominating festival, LA Shorts Fest and won two Honourable Mention Awards at the ImagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada. He was one of 25 film directors that participated in First Nations/First Features, a touring showcase of first features films by world indigenous directors presented by The Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian and New York University.

KILLER WHALE PR+M celebrate these awards with the filmmakers and cinematographer for their outstanding achievements and are happy to share the news with you.

For more information on the films, please visit their websites (linked within http//killerwhaleprm.wordpress.com). Learn more about the filmmakers at the Killer Whale website under ARTISTS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT.

CHEERS TO BLACKHORSE LOWE, SMOKEY NELSON AND PHILIPP ABRYUTIN!