Santo Domingo, January 16, 2010

La Soga took first prize in the Best Picture category while P-Star Rising took the top prize for Best Documentary in the Audience Awards. The winning awards, announced by the directors of the III Dominican Global Film Festival, were chosen by viewers who attended the festival and voted in the various categories.

La Soga featuring Dominican actor, Manny Pérez, and the musical documentary P-Star Rising, about the life of Priscilla Star won the Audience Awards in the categories of Best Picture and Best Documentary of the III Dominican Global Film Festival, The films were selected by the viewing public who voted by ballots distributed at the end of every film during the Festival in all of its five venues: Santo Domingo, Santiago, Puerto Plata, Nagua and Cap Cana.

The ballots allowed the audience to evaluate the films with the following ratings: excellent, very good, good, fair and bad.

Throughout the Festival, organizers were gathering the voting urns and began the count once it ended, thus offering direct audience recognition of the films and documentaries shown at the 2009 Festival, in which 30 films participated.

During the 100-minute showing, La Soga won the vast majority of popular support. The film, which moves between Santiago, Dominican Republic and New York City’s Washington Heights, is a crime story, a love story and a clear analysis of the price of revenge.

Luisito (Manny Pérez) is the main hit man for the Chief of the Dominican Secret Police who keeps him under permanent control always with the promise of handing over the man who killed his father and has fled to New York.

Luisito’s plans to avenge his father’s murder hit a snag when he runs into Jenny (Denise Quiñones), his first love. Jenny’s tender affection makes Luisito aware of the corruption that surrounds him. Full of crude energy and rough beauty, this gripping story about a man, himself a killer, seeking redemption is Josh Crooks’ directing debut as well and Manny Pérez’s as main actor, screenwriter and producer.

P-Star Rising tells the story of the super-talented Priscilla Star of Harlem who began her rapping career under the name “P-Star” even before her age registered two digits.

Currently she is one of the stars of the successful re-released television series, “The Electric Company,” the soundtrack of which is hip-hop music. This moving documentary is an inspiring look at Priscilla’s rise to fame.

The organizers of the Festival thanked the Dominican public for their enthusiastic participation in the voting process, without which this event would not have been possible.