Hallam artist-researcher wins prestigious film award

Helen Blejerman has received the Best Video Art Award at the prestigious Asolo Art Film Festival in Italy, one of the world’s oldest and most respected festivals in Europe dedicated to art and cinema

Press contact: Emma Griffiths | e.griffiths@shu.ac.uk

Helen’s short film, Areas of Search, confronts femicide in Mexico. The film investigates the religious aspect of families in Mexico who have lost a daughter or sister to femicide and the areas where people search for the victims’ bodies.   

The film traces territories where bodies of women have been found and is narrated by a voice which questions connections to God and beliefs in the afterlife when a funeral does not take place. 

Often families know that their daughter or sister was killed, but despite extensive efforts, it is not possible to find the victim’s body. Collectives of families and searching brigades look for corpses in urban and rural areas, most of the time without the help of the authorities. 

The film forms part of Helen’s PhD research, which explores femicide and expanded forms of moving image related to ritual as a method to understand systemic loss and grief. 

On winning the award, Helen said: “I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive the Best Video Art Award at the Asolo Art Film Festival in Italy, one of the world’s oldest and most respected festivals dedicated to art and cinema and a detachment from Venice Biennale. To have my work recognised by an organisation that has awarded artists such as Andrei Tarkovsky, Aleksandr Sokurov, and Ingrid Bergman is both surreal and profoundly meaningful.  

“My short film Areas of Search confronts femicide, a subject that carries unbearable weight, urgency, and silence. I accept this award with profound gratitude to the jury and especially in solidarity with the Mexican women who have shared their stories and experiences in the brutality of femicide. This work belongs to them. May this recognition not only honour artistic vision but also amplify the voices that are too often unheard.”  

Areas of Search was first screened at Sheffield Cathedral as part of No Bounds Festival 2024. The screening was part of a strand of exhibitions from Hallam artist-researchers curated by Amy Carter-Gordon.  

Helen Blejerman is a Mexican artist based in Sheffield and an associate lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. She has been practising for almost two decades across different media and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. 

Helen’s work has investigated notions of loss, burial traditions and the sacred and divine connected to the soil and landscape.