Dec 6, 2012
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society announced today the filmmakers who have been awarded FilmHouse Residencies starting in February 2013. This innovative program, made possible by the generous support of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation with additional support from the San Francisco Film Commission, supports independent filmmaking by making office space available free of charge for six- or twelve-month residencies to independent filmmakers actively engaged in various stages of film production. In addition to office space, FilmHouse residents benefit from a robust guest speaker series, featuring lectures and presentations by leading industry professionals; resident-led workshops and work-in-progress screenings; access to the Film Society’s Professional Development classes; individual project consultation with SFFS Executive Director and acclaimed producer Ted Hope; and numerous other community-building programs and events. A major component of the Film Society’s Filmmaker360 program, FilmHouse functions as a vibrant workshop and creative hub for filmmakers of all stripes. The newest incoming residents are working in many different styles and genres and in varied stages of production.
The panelists who reviewed the applicants’ submissions were Jessica Anthony, FilmHouse coordinator; Ted Hope, SFFS executive director; Rivkah Beth Medow, filmmaker and Kenneth Rainin Foundation board member; Susannah Greason Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission; and Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360. The jury noted in a statement: “These filmmakers were chosen from a very strong applicant pool, which showed great diversity of projects across a full spectrum of development and execution. The chosen projects embraced the realities of getting made in this difficult market and of reaching their full audience and outreach potential, and the degree to which the filmmakers articulated that in the applications process was very influential to us. Considering how the artists could contribute to the FilmHouse community was also very inspiring; there is great potential for collaboration, peer-to-peer counseling and a general transparency in the process which will undoubtedly elevate each work, the community and Bay Area film culture as a whole.”
Applications are due in April 2013 for the next term of FilmHouse Residencies beginning in August. For more information, visit sffs.org/Filmmaker360/FilmHouse-Residencies.
Serge Bakalian, Way of the Warthogs
Documentary feature, preproduction, 12-month residency
Serge Bakalian is a San Francisco-based filmmaker and activist. He worked for the F.A.O. of the United Nations and Greenpeace International before moving to San Francisco in 2007 to produce film and theater dedicated to the Middle East. In 2011, Bakalian completed the award-winning Default: the Student Loan Documentary, which has seen been released on PBS and LinkTV. He has worked on a wide range of issues and campaigns, notably on defending the biodiversity of the world’s food supply against genetic modification. Bakalian holds a B.S. in Chemistry and a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics. Way of the Warthogs features the Oakland Warthogs Youth Rugby program, the challenges faced by its student athletes and the impact of rugby in America’s inner cities.
Cheryl Dunye, (Per)mission
Narrative feature / live performance, screenwriting, 12-month residency
Cheryl Dunye, a native of Liberia, received her MFA from Rutgers University and is an Associate Professor at California College of the Arts. She has received numerous national and international honors for her work in the media arts. Dunye wrote, directed and starred in the first African American lesbian feature film, The Watermelon Woman. Her other works have been included in the Whitney Biennial and screened at festivals in New York, London, Tokyo, Cape Town, and Sydney. Dunye has served on the Directors Guild of America’s Independent Council and on the advisory board for IFP’s Gordon Parks Award. (Per)mission is a digital narrative/live cinema performance illuminating the personal and political scenarios (past, present, future) of Cheryl, a black butch feminist filmmaker as she struggles to define herself in a pluralist society where language and emotions conflict with her authentic visibility.
Christie Herring, The Campaign
Documentary feature, postproduction, 12-month residency
No stranger to politics, Christie Herring grew up working on campaigns for public office in Mississippi. Today she is an award-winning independent documentary director with a strong interest in social justice. Her first film Waking in Mississippi focused on the wildly controversial election of the first black mayor in Herring’s childhood hometown-a contest that ended in the threat of a race riot. Her short films Chickens in the City, Howdy Partner, and Bodies and Souls have won multiple awards, screened at dozens of film festivals around the world, and have aired on PBS. The Campaign is a human drama following ordinary people caught in a political firestorm, the campaign to defeat California’s Proposition 8 and defend same-sex marriage.
Jonah Markowitz, Start at the End
Narrative feature, screenwriting, 12-month residency
Jonah Markowitz has been professionally making films for the past 13 years. He wrote and directed the critically acclaimed independent feature film Shelter, which won the HBO Award for Outstanding First Feature and the Scion Director’s Award, as well as audience awards in New York, Vancouver, Sao Paulo and Melbourne, among others. The film was named “The Number 1 Gay Film of All Time” by AfterElton.com in their bi-annual poll. Previously, Markowitz wrote and directed two short films, I Left Me and Hung Up, which screened at over 40 festivals worldwide and were both programmed at the American Cinematheque. Start At The End is about a childless gay couple becoming caretakers of their teenage niece and nephew following a fatal car accident.
Banker White and Anna Fitch, The Genius of Marian
Documentary feature, postproduction/outreach, 12-month residency
Banker White directed and produced the award-winning documentary Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars, which tells the story of a group of six Sierra Leonean musicians. The film was nominated by the International Documentary Association for best feature in 2006, won grand jury awards at AFI Fest, Full Frame Film Festival and Human Rights Watch Film Festival, and earned audience awards at SXSW and Miami International Film Festival. It was also broadcast on POV in North America, HBO Latin America and NHK in Japan. In 2009, he founded WeOwnTV, a collaborative filmmaking and storytelling project based in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The Genius of Marian is an intimate documentary about a family struggling with change and loss as a wife and mother grapples with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and seeks to share memories of childhood and of her own mother, the renowned painter Marian Williams Steele.
Anna Fitch is an Emmy Award-winning director whose work has aired on National Geographic, Channel 4, TLC and PBS. Her films BugWorld: War of Two Worlds and Bug Attack have won numerous awards, including an Emmy for Best Documentary Directing in 2003 for the former. In 2011 her short The Burning Wigs of Sedition screened at the National Gallery of Art, the Seattle International Film Festival, the Woodstock Film Festival, the San Francisco Film Society’s Cinema By the Bay, the Perth Revelation Film Festival and Rooftop Films, and won a Best of Festival prize at the Black Maria Film Festival and an Audience Award at SF IndieFest.
Filmmaker360 offers unparalleled assistance and opportunities designed to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers nationwide and oversees one of the largest film grant programs in the country, which disperses nearly $1 million annually to incubate and support innovative and exceptional films. Other elements of Filmmaker360 include project development consultation, membership discounts and benefits, fiscal sponsorship, Off the Page script workshops, professional development classes and information resources. Recent Filmmaker360 success stories include Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which received two SFFS / Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grants totaling $105,000 for postproduction, and went on to win both Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or. For information visit Filmmaker360.