FRANCE 24 has been awarded the prestigious French FIGRA prize for a short-format documentary depicting the hardships and hunger of the people living in Maracaibo, Venezuela’s second city, which was once known as the country’s affluent oil capital.
The 26-minute-long “'We're starving to death': City of Maracaibo symbolises Venezuela's collapse” by FRANCE 24’s Roméo Langlois and Jorge Benezra, won the top prize in the short-format category on Saturday. The report gives a heart-wrenching account of the depths of human suffering caused by the brutal descent into poverty of Maracaibo, where even eating has become a luxury.
“The ghosts of Karachi”, a documentary depicting the life in a female psychiatric hospital in Pakistan, and which competed in the same category, earned the jury’s special mention.
In all, 77 documentaries competed in the 28th edition of the week-long FIGRA international festival which was held in Douai in northern France.
The documentary “On the line”, which follows the lives of three Mexican migrants deported back to their homeland from the United States, won the long-format category.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
