Mar 11, 2010
Artist Development
San Francisco Film Society and The Kenneth Rainin Foundation announced today the ten finalists for the third SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant of up to $190,000, to be given to one or more narrative feature film(s) with a social justice theme that will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community. Over the next five years SFFS and KRF will disburse a series of semiannual grants totaling more than $3 million.
The SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants support films that through plot, character, theme or setting significantly explore human and civil rights, antidiscrimination, gender and sexual identity and other urgent social justice issues of our time. The grants, which run 2009-13, will be awarded in the spring and fall of each year. Finalists for the Spring 2010 grant follow.
FINALISTS
Chris Brown: Fanny, Annie and Danny, postproduction
When a mentally disabled 39-year-old woman who has been living in a home for dependent adults loses her job and returns home, familial bonds are strained and the resentment of her siblings shatters the celebratory mood of a holiday dinner. chrisbrownfilms.com
Rodney Evans: Day Dream, preproduction
Day Dream explores the lives and experiences of two musical legends, Billy Strayhorn and Buddy Bolden, and the ways in which alienation, improvisation and freedom were integral to their lives and central motifs in their music.
Jörg Fockele: Hiddensee, screenwriting
Hiddensee is the story of the unlikely friendship between an abrasive Holocaust survivor recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and her African American nurse, a moonlighting academic. At the core of this road movie is a provocative story of racism, secrets and the bitter truths that can destroy their lives or hold them together. fockele.com
Krisy Gosney: Manhandled, screenwriting
Manhandled is the story of a longtime lesbian couple undergoing shock waves of changing perception and identify as one partner’s transition from female to male impacts their relationship.
Annie Howell: Black Kid, preproduction
Black Kid is the comic coming-of-age story of a geeky, 11-year-old biracial kid from New York whose world is turned upside down when his family relocates to a rural, all-white Appalachian town. With the support of his parents, he learns to define himself rather than fulfill the expectations of others.
Barry Jenkins: Jeremiad, screenwriting
Jeremiah goes back to San Francisco following a term in San Quentin and quickly discovers that there’s a stigma on Black men returning from prison for which he has a compelling rebuttal, in the form of a prison clinic printout specifically declaring him HIV negative. The ensuing consequences challenge Jeremiah more than his incarceration did until he comes to understand that hope is the product of honesty. strikeanywherefilms.com
Maryam Keshavarz: Circumstance, postproduction
Against the backdrop of a reactionary Iranian government, a father fights to create a sanctuary of music, art and intellectual curiosity for his two children, but one child’s emerging sexuality is threatened by the other’s newfound religious devotion and political vigilance. marakeshfilms.com
Miles Montalbano: A Human Certainty, screenwriting
A working-poor young couple makes a suicide pact to end their lives in one month and discovers a newfound sense of freedom that allows them to treat their last days together as a romantic adventure, but when the month ends they must face the irrevocable reality of their decision. grayeminencefilms.com
Natalija Vekic: Solace, screenwriting
A once-prolific author and expatriate refuses to confront the horror of the war that she fled until a chance encounter brings her face to face with the war criminal who holds the key to unlocking the mystery surrounding her husband’s disappearance. lostandfoundfilms.com
Benh Zeitlin: Beasts of the Southern Wild, postproduction
In this mythological epic inspired by the erosion crisis impacting the wetlands of America’s Gulf Coast, a ferocious young heroine vows to save her father, who is stricken by a mysterious illness, and her rapidly sinking island home. court13.com
The recipient(s) of the Spring 2010 SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grant will be announced at the Golden Gate Awards, Wednesday, May 5, at Temple Nightclub – Prana Restaurant.
The SFFS/KRF Filmmaking Grants support work by local filmmakers as well as attract projects of the highest quality to the Bay Area, providing tangible encouragement and support to meaningful projects and benefiting the local economy. In addition to a cash grant, recipients will receive various benefits through the Film Society’s comprehensive and dynamic filmmaker services programs. For more information: sffs.org/filmmaker-services/grants-and-prizes
The Kenneth Rainin Foundation is a private family foundation dedicated to enhancing the quality of life by promoting equitable access to a baseline of literacy, enabling inspiration through the magic of the arts and providing opportunity for a healthy lifestyle for those with chronic disease. The Foundation focuses its efforts on the San Francisco Bay Area and specific medical issues and utilizes its networks, resources and commitment to socially responsible business practices to support innovation, collaboration and connection.