Honorable Mention: Kirby Walker Documentary Award at San Francisco Film Festival
Kirby Walker Documentary Award
Honorable Mention
Yo (Love Is A Rebellious Bird)—HONORABLE MENTION
Anna Fitch, Banker White (USA 2026)
This film is a sheer delight to experience, filled with inventive, refreshingly exciting visual and emotional surprises at every turn—a deeply heartfelt exploration of friendship taking a wonderfully artistic approach. Using puppetry, constructed miniatures, and a treasure trove of Yo’s family photos along with other archival footage, we are instantly taken on a journey that invites us into a hand-crafted memory palace that brings both Yo’s stories as well as her deeply moving, lifelong friendship with director Anna Fitch into focus. Without this richly constructed, cinematic portrait, Yo’s life might have vanished into the mists of Pacific Grove, so this film is charged with a sense of urgency – as well as delight. It’s message: let your inner-maverick chart your course with curiosity and courage, keep those you love close by, live your life with few regrets, and wander through the world with discovery and wonder as your compass.
Kirby Walker Documentary Jury—Michael Kinomoto, Senior Manager of Production and Supervising Producer, ITVS; Loren Hammonds, Emmy and Peabody Award–winning producer and Head of Documentary, TIME Studios; and Trish Adlesic, Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and producer.
