Original article by Gail McCarthy, Staff Writer for the Gloucester Daily Times. Published on October 2, 2024.
Gloucester’s Kyle Browne, a Manship artist, won a Berlin Indie Award for Best Female Director for her film, “Spirit Sensing: Anima of the Quarry,” in the International Short category. The short, filmed on Cape Ann, was based on a performance by Browne and jazz musician Stan Strickland at the Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester. Photo credit: Ben Gebo
Browne received the award in the International Short category. The Berlin International Short Awards showcase a diverse range of filmmaking styles and genres and is a celebration of the world’s best and most innovative short films, according to the Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester.
After a preview screening in Rockport this summer, Browne’s work is making the film festival circuit including the Vienna Independent Film Festival in Austria.
The short film was based on a performance by Browne and jazz musician Stan Strickland at the Manship Artists Residency. The residency is located at the summer home of American sculptor Paul Manship (1885–1966), who created the prominent golden Prometheus Fountain at Rockefeller Center in New York City.
“The film is inspired by Browne’s residency and her explorations of energy (during the residency), and the belief in anima — that all nature has a spirit. The film’s narrative is centered around a woman going for a peaceful row in the quarry, only to unexpectedly meet the quarry spirit,” according to Manship.
Browne describes the film as an “experiential invocation of the quarry’s anima, with the quarry representing a portal to another dimension of wonder and interconnectedness.”
Kyle Browne and jazz musician Stan Strickland perform in August 2024 before her short film began the film festival circuit. Browne, a Gloucester native and Manship artist, won a Berlin Indie Award for Best Female Director for her film “Spirit Sensing: Anima of the Quarry” in the International Short category. The short, filmed on Cape Ann, was based on a performance by Browne and Strickland at the Manship Artists Residency in Gloucester. TSAR FEDORSKY/Courtesy photo
The film was shot by Browne and Rockport native Jack Davies. It was edited as a short film by Gloucester resident, filmmaker, owner of B-Roll Films, and Manship Board Trustee Ken Kinna.
To date, “Spirit Sensing” has won seven national and international awards, including two Best Editing awards for Kinna from the International Film Festivals in Vienna and Aspen, Colorado. Strickland won a best original musical score award from the IndieFest Film Awards in La Jolla, California. Other collaborators on the film include musician Bob Toabe and Gareth Granville.
Now based in Boston, Browne is a conceptual artist who grew up on Rocky Neck. Her background includes experience as an educator and community artist; she was awarded a Manship Artist Residency in 2023.
Browne holds a master’s in fine arts from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, a master’s in education from Lesley University in Cambridge, and a bachelor’s in fine art from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Details on the artist residency may be found at ManshipArtists.org.
Gail McCarthy may be contacted at 978-675-2706, or gmccarthy@northofboston.com.
