Voted by the audience, the festival presents a film-maker with the Glaister Award. Named after the founders of Braziers Park, psychiatrist Norman Glaister and progressive educationalist Dorothy Glaister, the award recognises a film which makes a positive contribution to social development and action in the world today.

The award winner receives homemade produce from the Braziers permaculture garden.

2024 Glaister Award

Rehab Nazzal
Vibrations from Gaza
Palestine, 2023

Vibrations from Gaza offers a glimpse into the experiences of deaf children in the besieged territory of Gaza, Palestine. The children, including Amani, Musa, Israa, and others, provide vivid accounts of their encounters of Israeli bombardment and the constant presence of military drones in their sky. The children describe their perceptions of missiles strikes through sensing vibrations in the air, trembling of the ground, and the resonance of collapsing buildings. The film also questions whether the deafness of these children is a natural or a consequence of Israel’s use of sonic weaponry.

Vibrations from Gaza, Trailer

Women of the Resistance: Rehab Nazzal, interview 2024

See also Moving the Landscape to Find Ground: Artist Talk with Rehab Nazzal, as also featured on our online resource Voices for Palestine

2024 Glaister Award Special Mention

Liberty Nam-Do Smith
My Exploding House
UK, 2024

My Exploding House follows a quest to find the truth behind a thirty year old memory, along the way connecting the dots between family, community, the power of place and the concept of home.

2023 Glaister Award

Siôn Marshall-Waters
Forest Coal Pit
UK, 2022

Two elderly brothers live together on a small farm where they have been since childhood. This super 8mm portrait explores the mundanity, vibrancy and intimacy of their relationship and hyperlocal world.

As they feed their livestock, tend to their garden and piles of scrap metal, the brothers discuss their views on elephants in China, lobster fisherman, ghosts and each other.

Forest Coal Pit / trailer

2023 Glaister Award Special Mention

Mariana Castiñeiras
Exoskeletons
Hungary, 2022

A filmmaker who struggles with her fear of insects meets a neurologist with a peculiar obsession for beetles. Curious about what his passion can teach her, she decides to join him on his expeditions into the Hungarian woods.

Exoskeletons is a sensorial close-up to an unlikely encounter.

2022 Glaister Award joint winners

Julia Parks
Seaweed
UK, 2022

Seaweed explores the folklore, ecology, and history of seaweed in north Scotland. Voiced by seaweed harvesters, workers in the alginate factories, environmental activists, archaeologists, seaweed farmers behind the miracle resource. The film includes archive footage, oral histories and contemporary documentary footage of people working with seaweed.

Helen McCrorie
We know a better word than happy
UK, 2021

We know a better word than happy captures children’s delight in the possibilities for fun and learning in an urban green space established by community activism in Maryhill, Glasgow. A quarter of households in this area have no access to a private or shared garden and, following lockdown, the children express their rights to outdoor play, for learning, togetherness and resilience.

2021 Glaister Award

Claudia Claremi
El Monte
2017

In Sierra Maestra, Cuba, José Manuel explains to his granddaughter Malena his world view through deep knowledge of natures’ mysteries. Plants and people have great resemblances and must respect each other. José Manuel hopes that Malena inherits the knowledge that he obtained from the father and she becomes a great mountain tree.

Claudia Claremi

2021 Glaister Award Special Mention

Wuon-Gean Ho
Shadow Boy and Shadow Girl
UK, 2019

Wuon-Gean Ho, Shadow Boy and Shadow Girl