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SFFILM News

New SFFILM Makers programs select inaugural recipients

New SFFILM Makers programs select inaugural recipients

New SFFILM Makers programs select inaugural recipients

Two of the newest programs developed by the SFFILM Makers team have selected their first winners this week! Championing international…

New SFFILM Makers programs select inaugural recipients

Two of the newest programs developed by the SFFILM Makers team have selected their first winners this week! Championing international voices and filmmakers telling stories about women and peace, these new initiatives broaden and diversify the SFFILM Makers family in exciting ways.

NEW AMERICAN PRODUCER FELLOWSHIP

First up, the inaugural New American Producer Fellowship was awarded to filmmaker Carlo Velayo. The first of its kind in the US film industry — this fellowship is made possible thanks to SFFILM’s collaboration with the Flora Family Foundation. It includes a $25,000 cash grant and a FilmHouse artist residency in San Francisco to an independent producer who has recently immigrated to the United States. Envisioned to provide a stage for the voices of international filmmakers and to support their work in the US, the New American Producer Fellowship seeks to support films by new American artists, ultimately providing meaningful and challenging experiences to public audiences.
 
The panelists who reviewed the applicants’ submissions are Abhi Singh, Flora Family Foundation, Board of Directors; Jihan Robinson, Vice President of Nonfiction Programming at First Look Media; Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development; and Lauren Kushner, SFFILM’s Senior Manager of Artist Development.
 
The jury noted in a statement: “We are thrilled to have chosen Carlo Velayo for SFFILM’s inaugural New American Producer Fellowship. In his work with directors to date, Carlo has explored challenging subjects with compassion and nuance, and his and Isabel Sandoval’s current narrative feature project Lingua Franca — in its moody intimacy, sensitivity and romanticism — is no exception. Carlo’s contribution to independent film in the US is the type of work we look forward to championing through this program.”

Carlo Velayo is a Philippine-born, Australian-raised, NYC-based producer at Stedfast Productions. He was an Associate Producer on Cheryl Furjanic’s Emmy-nominated film, Back on Board: Greg Louganis, and recently made his debut as a PGA Producer with Jessica M. Thompson’s The Light of The Moon, receiving the 2017 SXSW Audience Award for Narrative Feature. In 2016, Velayo spent two months at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), working on Emmy Award-winning Filipina-American filmmaker Michele Josue’s forthcoming documentary project Happy Jail, which participated in the 2017 IFP Week. Velayo is currently a producer on Isabel Sandoval’s third independent narrative feature, Lingua Franca, which tells the story of an undocumented, transgender Filipina woman who falls in love with the grandson of the elderly Russian Jewish woman she cares for in Brooklyn. Velayo is also developing an Australian-US co-production, Take Me to Paris, Johnny, with writer/director Alan Brown (Five Dances, Private Romeo). This narrative feature is about a gay, Black, Cuban refugee dancer who dreams of performing in Paris and falls in love with an Australian writer in 1970s NYC just before the AIDS epidemic.
 
WOMEN, PEACE, AND SECURITY FELLOWSHIPS

The first ever Women, Peace, and Security Fellowships, created with support from the Compton Foundation to elevate stories of women’s efforts to end conflict and advance peace, were awarded to Molly Stuart for her documentary Objector and to Deann Borshay Liem for her documentary Crossings. In addition to financial support, fellows will receive a residency and benefit from mentorships and meaningful networking opportunities.

The Women, Peace, and Security Fellowship is open to both documentary and narrative filmmakers who are telling stories of women’s efforts to end conflict and advance peace. Fellowships include a $25,000 grant and a FilmHouse residency, connections to advisors with expertise in the subject matter of each film, networking opportunities, and active support from SFFILM staff and mentors within the Bay Area creative community. This program seeks to inspire filmmakers to tell stories of courageous women leaders, to generate conversation across public audiences, and to encourage policymakers to invest in women as essential actors in effective peace-building and violence prevention.
 
The panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions are Ellen Friedman, Compton Foundation’s Executive Director; Carrie Lozano, Director of IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund; Elizabeth Weingarten, Director of Global Gender Parity Initiative at New America; Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development; and Lauren Kushner, SFFILM’s Senior Manager of Artist Development.
 
The jury noted in a statement: “We are delighted to support Objector and Crossings — two projects that offer nuanced portrayals of women’s brave efforts to counteract violence and advance peace. We believe that these films will generate important conversations among audiences and strengthen peace-building movements that recognize women as essential actors in the prevention of violence and extremism.”
 
Objector
Like all Israeli teenagers, Atalya is obligated to become a soldier. Unlike most, she questions the role of the military and becomes determined to challenge this compulsory rite of passage. Despite her family’s wishes, she joins a movement of conscientious objectors, is imprisoned for her dissent, and launches an unexpected life as activist for justice in Palestine.

Molly Stuart is an emerging filmmaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Growing up on a small commune in the Santa Cruz mountains, she developed a critical lens on society and a drive to tell stories that can transform it. From a young age, she became an avid home video producer, documenting the many eclectic personalities that appeared in her living room. As Stuart began to see the limits of communal idealism in affecting broad-scale change, she became a community organizer and worked on numerous grassroots documentary shorts. After studying sociology and film studies at Middlebury College, she went on to pursue an MFA at San Francisco State University. Stuart’s film work has won awards at film festivals around the US and has been published in outlets including the Nation and In These Times. She is the 2016 recipient of the Bill Nichols Excellence in Cinema Award from San Francisco State University.
 
Crossings
In Crossings, a group of internationally renowned women peacemakers, organized by intrepid Korean American activist Christine Ahn, attempts the impossible: crossing the DMZ from North to South Korea to call for peace on the Korean peninsula. This documentary feature follows 30 women leaders, including Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Laureates Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire, on this historic journey. Through their story, Crossings explores enduring questions about war’s legacies and the role women play in resolving the world’s most intractable conflicts.

Deann Borshay Liem is producer and director of the Emmy Award-nominated documentary First Person Plural, and the award-winning films In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee and Memory of Forgotten War. She has produced, executive produced, and consulted on a variety of award-winning documentaries, including AKA Don Bonus, Kelly Loves Tony, The Apology, Breathin’: The Eddy Zheng Story, Mimi & Dona, Ishi’s Return, and others. In May 2015, as a member of an international delegation of women, Liem took a film crew to North Korea and covered the delegation’s journey from Beijing to Pyongyang and their crossing of the DMZ into South Korea. This footage is the basis of the work-in-progress documentary Crossings.
 
As always, for more info on SFFILM’s filmmaker services programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

By SFFILM on December 15, 2017.

Canonical link

Exported from Medium on March 18, 2023.

Narrative News: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Winners Announced

Narrative News: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Winners Announced

Narrative News: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Winners Announced

It’s an exciting time to be an independent narrative feature filmmaker in the SFFILM Makers family — in addition to the launch of the new…

Narrative News: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Winners Announced

It’s an exciting time to be an independent narrative feature filmmaker in the SFFILM Makers family — in addition to the launch of the new SFFILM / Westridge Grant this week, our team has selected the winners of the Fall 2017 SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants!

The nine winning projects split a total of $225,000 in funding to push their projects forward, with one film in the development phase, four films in screenwriting, one in production, and three in post-production. Plus, in a first under this partnership, a discretionary loan of $25,000 was awarded to Boots Riley’s film Sorry to Bother You, which is currently in the final stages of post-production.

The review panel for this round of grants were Noah Cowan, SFFILM’s Executive Director; Paul Federbush, International Director, Feature Film Program at the Sundance Institute; Shelley Trott, Director of Arts Strategy and Ventures at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Diana Williams, Content Strategist at Lucasfilm; Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM’s Director of Artist Development; and Lauren Kushner, SFFILM’s Senior Manager of Artist Development.

They noted: “We are proud to support these emerging filmmaking teams, many of whom are embarking upon their first feature films. The SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants program seeks to support filmmakers who are grappling with complex social issues through compelling and inventive artistic approaches. Ranging from a tense police procedural that tells the story of a marginalized Nepali inspector to a portrait of the personal impact of San Francisco gentrification that blends romanticism with a stark realism, this group of films clearly represents that vision.”

Applications are now being accepted for the spring 2018 round of SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants! Find out more at sffilm.org/makers.

FALL 2017 SFFILM / RAININ FILMMAKING GRANT WINNERS

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

All About Nina
Eva Vives, director; Natalie Qasabian, Eric Fleischman, and Sean Tabibian producers — post-production — $25,000

Eva Vives

Just as Nina Geld’s brilliant and angry stand-up comedy kicks her career into high gear, her romantic life gets complicated, forcing her to reckon with what it means to be creative, authentic, and a woman in today’s culture.

.
.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

American Babylon
Yvan Iturriaga, writer/director — screenwriting — $12,000

Yvan Iturriaga

.

American Babylon is a gripping tale of love and revolution set in the gritty streets of Oakland, California in the months leading up to 9/11.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Fremont
Babak Jalali, writer/director; Carolina Cavalli, co-writer; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer — development — $22,000

Babak Jalali

Troubled, edgy, unconventional Donya — an Afghani translator formerly working for the US military — now spends her days writing fortunes for a Chinese fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. As she struggles to put her life back in order, in a moment of sudden revelation, she sends out a message, wrapped in a fortune cookie — an act that sends her on an odyssey of deceit, mystery, and redemption.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Jules of Light and Dark
Daniel Laabs, writer/director; Jeff Walker, Liz Cardenas Franke, and Russell Sheaffer, producers — post-production — $25,000

Daniel Laabs

A young woman, Maya, struggles to rebuild her life after surviving a devastating car wreck with her girlfriend. The two are found and rescued by an oil worker, Freddy, who forges an unlikely friendship with Maya in this Texas-set drama.

.

.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The Last Black Man in San Francisco
Joe Talbot, writer/director; Khaliah Neal, producer — production — $50,000

Joe Talbot

Jimmie Fails dreams of buying back the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Now living in the city’s last, dwindling Black neighborhood with his oddball best friend Prentice, he searches for belonging in the rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Me, My Mom and Sharmila
Fawzia Mirza, writer/director; Terrie Samundra producer/co-writer — screenwriting — $22,000

Fawzia Mirza

.

A queer, Pakistani teen, her Muslim immigrant mother, and a Bollywood heroine’s destinies intertwine in this bittersweet coming of age tale.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Monsters and Men
Reinaldo Marcus Green, director; Josh Penn and Elizabeth Lodge Stepp. producers — post-production — $25,000

Monsters and Men is an interwoven narrative about police violence, racial profiling, and the power of perspective. The story is told in three chapters, each shifting perspective to different protagonists who are from the same Brooklyn neighborhood: first, a man who captures an act of police violence on his cellphone, then, an African-American police officer working in the precinct, and finally, a high-school baseball phenom.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Mr. Rob
Fawaz Al-Matrouk, writer/director — screenwriting — $22,000

Fawaz Al-Matrouk

The true story of Rob Lawrie, an ex-soldier who left his family in England to help migrants at the infamous Jungle refugee camp in France. Lawrie risked everything to rescue a four-year-old girl, entrusted to him by her father, but was arrested and charged with human smuggling.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Raja
Deepak Rauniyar, writer/director — screenwriting — $22,000

Deepak Rauniyar

.

Raja is a socially-rooted police procedural, a race-against-time thriller, as well as a portrait of Nepal — a complex society on the edge of a new future.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Sorry to Bother You
Boots Riley, writer/director; Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker, Charles King, George Rush, Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, producers — post-production — $25,000 loan

Boots Riley

Sorry to Bother You tells the story of Cassius Green, a Black telemarketer who discovers a magical key to telemarketing success, propelling him into a macabre universe where he is selected to lead a species of genetically manipulated horse-people.
.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. The SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant program has funded more than 50 projects since its inception, including Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, which closed the 2017 Cannes Director’s Fortnight program, ahead of its summer release; Alex and Andrew Smith’s Walking Out starring Matt Bomer and Josh Wiggins, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival; Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which screened at Sundance and Cannes in 2015; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Ben Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

For more info, visit sffilm.org/makers.

By SFFILM on November 21, 2017.

Canonical link

Exported from Medium on March 18, 2023.

A statement from SFFILM in response to sexual violence revelations in the film industry

A statement from SFFILM in response to sexual violence revelations in the film industry

A statement from SFFILM in response to sexual violence revelations in the film industry

The leadership of SFFILM has read the recent news about sexual violence in the film world with great sadness and anger.

A statement from SFFILM in response to sexual violence revelations in the film industry

The leadership of SFFILM has read the recent news about sexual violence in the film world with great sadness and anger.

SFFILM reconfirms its commitment to making the spaces we occupy as safe as possible for everyone in our community.

Furthermore, we commit to taking any actions necessary to eliminate opportunities for sexual predation and other forms of intimidation and violence to occur among our audiences, residents, guests, staff, contractors, and volunteers.

We commit to a zero-tolerance policy for incidents of sexual harassment or violence by attendees of our programs, and by guests, staff, and associates of the organization.

We commit to maintaining an open environment for communication and support, where our community can speak their minds and identify wrongdoing without fear of reproach or negative consequences.

We are proud of the efforts we have made to create a welcoming and inclusive environment at our Festival, in our FilmHouse residency space, in our schools programs, and at our year-round events.

But we can all do more.

No one should fear sexual violence or harassment of any sort as part of their commitment to and inclusion in the cultural life of this city and our organization.

Signed,

Noah Cowan
And the staff and board of SFFILM

By SFFILM on October 12, 2017.

Canonical link

Exported from Medium on March 18, 2023.

Film Funding in the Fall: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Finalists Announced

Film Funding in the Fall: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Finalists Announced

Film Funding in the Fall: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Finalists Announced

An exciting group of 14 indie narrative feature projects has been just been selected by the SFFILM Makers team as finalists for the Fall…

Film Funding in the Fall: SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant Finalists Announced

An exciting group of 14 indie narrative feature projects has been just been selected by the SFFILM Makers team as finalists for the Fall 2017 round of SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grants. The contenders include a few filmmakers who have received SFFILM support in the past — like H.P. Mendoza, Joe Talbot, and Maris Curran — along with several newcomers to the SFFILM family.

The winning projects, which will split $250,000 in this fall round, will be announced in just over a month. In the meantime, get to know this talented group of finalists!

As always, find out more about the filmmakers services provided by SFFILM Makers at sffilm.org/makers.

SPRING 2017 SFFILM / RAININ FILMMAKING GRANT FINALISTS

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

American Babylon
Yvan Iturriaga, writer/director — screenwriting

Yvan Iturriaga

.

American Babylon is a gripping tale of love and revolution set in the gritty streets of Oakland, California in the months leading up to 9/11.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Bitter Melon
H.P. Mendoza, writer/director — post-production

H.P. Mendoza

A Filipino-American family reunites in San Francisco for a Christmas party only to discover that one of the sons, Troy, is ruling the house with fear and violence. What starts as a light holiday party turns dark as the youngest son, Declan, masterminds a plan to murder the physically and emotionally abusive Troy.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Fremont
Babak Jalali, writer/director; Carolina Cavalli, co-writer; Marjaneh Moghimi, producer — development

Babak Jalali

Troubled, edgy, unconventional Donya — an Afghani translator formerly working for the US military — now spends her days writing fortunes for a Chinese fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. As she struggles to put her life back in order, in a moment of sudden revelation, she sends out a message, wrapped in a fortune cookie — an act that sends her on an odyssey of deceit, mystery, and redemption.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The House without Windows
Ani Simon-Kennedy, writer/director — screenwriting

Ani Simon-Kennedy

Based on true events, The House Without Windows tells the story of a child prodigy novelist in the 1920s who resists growing up by retreating even deeper into her imagination, to tragic consequences. Her triple disappearance — in real life at the age of 25, in her first novel, and, finally, from the pages of history — stands in stark contrast to her erstwhile fame as America’s next great writer.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Jules of Light and Dark
Daniel Laabs, writer/director; Jeff Walker, Liz Cardenas Franke, and Russell Sheaffer, producers — post-production

Daniel Laabs

A young woman, Maya, struggles to rebuild her life after surviving a devastating car wreck with her girlfriend. The two are found and rescued by an oil worker, Freddy, who forges an unlikely friendship with Maya in this Texas-set drama.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Last Black Man in San Francisco
Joe Talbot, writer/director; Khaliah Neal, producer — production

Joe Talbot

Jimmie Fails dreams of buying back the Victorian home his grandfather built in the heart of San Francisco. Now living in the city’s last, dwindling Black neighborhood with his oddball best friend Prentice, he searches for belonging in the rapidly changing city that seems to have left them behind.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

The Lusty
Silas Howard, co-writer/director; Antonia Crane, co-writer; L.A. Teodosio, producer — development

Silas Howard

In the late ’90s in San Francisco, due to unsavory work conditions, a dynamic group of irreverent punk artist feminist strippers decides to resist sex-worker stigma and confront the exploitative labor practices at The Lusty Lady Peepshow, resulting in the first successful exotic dancers’ union in the world.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Me, My Mom and Sharmila
Fawzia Mirza, writer/director; Terrie Samundra producer/co-writer — screenwriting

Fawzia Mirza

.

A queer, Pakistani teen, her Muslim immigrant mother, and a Bollywood heroine’s destinies intertwine in this bittersweet coming of age tale.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Monsters and Men
Reinaldo Marcus Green, director; Josh Penn and Elizabeth Lodge Stepp. producers — post-production

Monsters and Men is an interwoven narrative about police violence, racial profiling, and the power of perspective. The story is told in three chapters, each shifting perspective to different protagonists who are from the same Brooklyn neighborhood: first, a man who captures an act of police violence on his cellphone, then, an African-American police officer working in the precinct, and finally, a high-school baseball phenom.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Mountain Rest
Alexandra Eaton, writer/director; Marcia Mayer, Fernando Loureiro, and Roberto Vasconcellos, producers — post-production

Alexandra Eaton

.

After sequestering herself to a small mountain town, an aging actress calls her estranged daughter and granddaughter home for reconciliation and one final celebration.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Mr. Rob
Fawaz Al-Matrouk, writer/director — screenwriting

Fawaz Al-Matrouk

The true story of Rob Lawrie, an ex-soldier who left his family in England to help migrants at the infamous Jungle refugee camp in France. Lawrie risked everything to rescue a four-year-old girl, entrusted to him by her father, but was arrested and charged with human smuggling.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Nina
Eva Vives, director; Natalie Qasabian, Eric Fleischman, and Sean Tabibian producers — post-production

Eva Vives

Just as Nina Geld’s brilliant and angry stand-up comedy kicks her career into high gear, her romantic life gets complicated, forcing her to reckon with what it means to be creative, authentic, and a woman in today’s culture.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Raja
Deepak Rauniyar, writer/director — screenwriting

Deepak Rauniyar

.

Raja is a socially-rooted police procedural, a race-against-time thriller, as well as a portrait of Nepal — a complex society on the edge of a new future.

.

.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

Selene
Maris Curran, writer/director/producer; Jon Coplon and Marcia Mayer, producers — development

Maris Curran (photo by Pamela Gentile)

Selene fears she has laryngitis again. On a routine doctor visit to get antibiotics, she is diagnosed with a rare condition that leaves her permanently voiceless. As her world turns upside down and she struggles to communicate and adapt, she discovers that this limitation leads to the opening of a new world.

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the United States. The SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant program has funded more than 50 projects since its inception, including Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, which closed the 2017 Cannes Director’s Fortnight program, ahead of its summer release; Alex and Andrew Smith’s Walking Out starring Matt Bomer and Josh Wiggins, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival; Chloé Zhao’s Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which screened at Sundance and Cannes in 2015; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Ben Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon Beasts of the Southern Wild, which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

For more info, visit sffilm.org/makers.

By SFFILM on September 26, 2017.

Canonical link

Exported from Medium on March 18, 2023.

Meet the winners of the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants

Meet the winners of the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants

Meet the winners of the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants

Six compelling nonfiction film projects have been awarded 2017 Documentary Film Fund grants, which support feature-length docs in the…

Meet the winners of the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants

Six compelling nonfiction film projects have been awarded 2017 Documentary Film Fund grants, which support feature-length docs in the post-production phase. This year’s fund has increased to an impressive $125,000, which will be distributed to the winning projects in early September.

Find out more about this and other filmmaking grant opportunities at sffilm.org/makers.

The panelists who reviewed the ten finalists’ submissions are Jennifer Battat, founder of the Jenerosity Foundation; Noah Cowan, SFFILM Executive Director; Caroline von Kühn, Director of Artist Development at SFFILM; Jenny Slattery, Associate Director of Foundations and Artist Development at SFFILM; and independent producer Corey Tong.
 
“We are thrilled to support these six filmmaking teams, each of which is telling an important story with boldness and passion,” the jury said in a statement. “This group of projects represents a wide range of artistic visions, subjects, and approaches to nonfiction filmmaking — from the intimate portrayal of an independent woman’s last days to an arresting journey into the surreal, futuristic city of Brasilia. We very much look forward to supporting these films as they evolve, make their way into the world, and leave their imprint on audiences, fellow filmmakers, and our collective sense of what can be achieved through the documentary form.”

The Doc Film Fund has helped several important films finish their edits in recent years, including Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for documentary and SFFILM Festival’s Bay Area Documentary Award, and will be released this fall by Kino Lorber; Peter Bratt’s Dolores, which won the 2017 SFFILM Festival Audience Award for Documentary Feature following its Sundance premiere; Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction, which won a Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; among many others.

Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly half a million dollars to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2017 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to an expanded gift from the Jenerosity Foundation.

2017 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS

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The Feeling of Being Watched
Assia Boundaoui, director/producer; Jessica Devaney, producer — $25,000

When a filmmaker investigates rumors of surveillance in her Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago, she uncovers one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and reveals its enduring impact on the community.

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Hale County, This Morning, This Evening
RaMell Ross, director; Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim, producers — $15,000

What is the experience of coming-of-age in the Black Belt region of the US? This film presents the lives of two young men in a series of visual movements that replace narrative arc with orchestral form.

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Heaven Through the Back Door
Anna Fitch and Banker White, co-directors/producers; Sara Dosa, producer — $20,000

Heaven Through the Backdoor is a contemplative documentary that tells the story of Yo (Yolanda Shae), a fiercely independent 88-year old woman whose unique brand of individualist feminism impacts how she chooses to live in the final years of her life. (Former SFFILM FilmHouse Resident)

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How to Have an American Baby
Leslie Tai, director/producer; Jillian Schultz, co-producer — $20,000

There is a city in Southern California that abounds with pregnant women from China. Told through multiple perspectives, How to Have an American Baby is a kaleidoscopic voyage behind the closed doors of the Chinese birth tourism industry. (SFFILM FilmHouse resident; SFFILM fiscally sponsored filmmaker; Bay Area-based project)

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A Machine to Live In
Yoni Goldstein and Meredith Zielke, co-directors; Sebastian Alvarez, producer; Andrew Benz, co-producer — $20,000

Hovering over what remains of Brazil’s modernist future, this film looks at how social control, rational design, and space-age architecture gave rise to a vast landscape of transcendental and mystical utopias. (Bay Area–based project)

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Midnight Family
Luke Lorentzen, director; Kellen Quinn, producer; Daniela Alatorre and Elena Fortes, co-producers — $25,000

In Mexico City, 16-year-old Juan Ochoa struggles to legitimize his family’s unlicensed ambulance business, as corrupt police in the neighborhood begin to target this cutthroat industry.

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For more news on SFFILM grant, fellowship, and residency opportunities, visit sffilm.org/makers.

By SFFILM on September 19, 2017.

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Exported from Medium on March 18, 2023.

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