Meet the Finalists for the Fall 2020 SFFILM Rainin Grant

It’s suddenly undeniably fall, and the SFFILM Makers team has been hard at work on another busy cycle of grant applications! This week, SFFILM and the Kenneth Rainin Foundation have decided on the finalists for the Fall 2020 SFFILM Rainin Grant, the organization’s flagship artist development program. Thirteen filmmaking teams have been shortlisted as contenders to receive funding for their narrative projects in various stages of production, from screenwriting to post-production.

SFFILM Rainin Grant program is the largest granting body for independent narrative feature films in the US, and supports films that address social justice issues — the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges — in a positive and meaningful way through plot, character, theme, or setting. Awards are made to multiple projects twice a year, in the spring and fall, for screenwriting, development, and post-production. In addition to a cash grant of up to $50,000, recipients are offered a two-month residency at FilmHouse and benefit from SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development programs.

The program is open to filmmakers from anywhere in the world who can commit to spending time developing the film in San Francisco. The Spring 2021 grant cycle is currently accepting applications; the deadline to apply is February 11. Learn more at sffilm.org/makers.

FALL 2020 SFFILM RAININ GRANT FINALISTS

Aliens in Eritrea
Sephora Woldu, writer/director; Valerie Steinberg and Nahom Abraham, producers — screenwriting
It’s 1993. Everyone is an alien navigating the newly independent nation of Eritrea — the diaspora moving back home, the citizens who never left, and the visitors from outer space.

Anees
Samina Akbari, writer/director — screenwriting
Haunted by her father’s passing in the childhood home they now inhabit, Zehra returns to protect her sister and young nephew from a sinister presence that threatens the only family she has left. Set in the captivating world of the Shia Muslim-American community, Anees is a meditation on the inheritance of trauma and the relationships that continue after death.

The Engineers
Mayuran Tiruchelvam, writer/producer; Willem Lee, writer — screenwriting
In 1777, Black freeman Agrippa Hull and exiled Polish engineer Tadeusz Kosciusko join the Continental Army — a ragged force of Indigenous, Black, and poor white fighters. Forging an unlikely brotherhood amidst the War for Independence, Agrippa and Kosciusko battle the festering racism of the nascent United States.
 
Gulaab (Rose)
Saim Sadiq, writer/director; Sabiha Sumar and Apoorva Charan, producers — development
 
Huaka’i
Tiare Ribeaux and Jody Stillwater, co-writers/directors — screenwriting
After marine biologist Mahina meets dancer Chris on a beach outside of San Francisco, they learn they are from two different Indigenous lineages that have experienced profound cultural genocide, and are both searching to reconnect with their heritage amidst post-colonial society. Chris awakens Mahina to the freedom he is able to access outside of western ideologies of success, and together they work towards healing from intergenerational trauma. 
 
Joy and Pain
Sanford Jenkins, writer/director; Sue-Ellen Chitunya, producer — development
Joy and Pain is a meditative exploration of two families, through a young couple burying a parent and bearing their first child.

Julian
Asher Jelinsky, writer/director — screenwriting
A young nonbinary person struggling to assert their identity falls in love with an older trans man who allows them to feel seen for who they are for the first time. But as conflicting long-term expectations emerge, mounting insecurities threaten to tear them apart.
 
 A Lo-Fi Blues
Ed Ntiri — writer/director/producer; Winnie Wong, producer — development
An aging blues musician who is convinced his late wife is trapped inside a song believes she has been kidnapped by a group of lo-fi hip-hop producers in Oakland.

Luzzu
Alex Camilleri, writer/director/producer; Rebecca Anastasi, Ramin Bahrani, and Oliver Mallia, producers — post-production
On the island of Malta, desperate fisherman Jesmark fights the cutthroat fishing industry in order to change his family’s fate.

Our Father, The Devil
Ellie Foumbi, writer/director/producer; Joseph Mastantuono, producer — screenwriting
A reserved African refugee’s quiet existence in a sleepy mountain town in the south of France is upended by the arrival of a charismatic Catholic priest, whom she recognizes from her past.
 
The Parking Lot Attendant
Lino Yerima Asana, writer/director — screenwriting
Based on the novel by Nafkote Tamirat, this is the story of a second-generation teenager in Boston’s tightly-knit Ethiopian community who, while grappling with loneliness, identity, and familial tension, falls under the spell of a charismatic attendant who runs a mysterious empire out of his parking lot.

Pharmacopeia
Tania Taiwo, writer/director — screenwriting
Pharmacopeia tells the story of a quirky, Black pharmacist drowning in student loan debt who rebels against the system and becomes the drug dealer pharmacy school never taught her to be.

Stampede
Sontenish Myers, writer/director; Camille Gatin, producer — development
On a southern plantation in the 1800s, a young slave girl named Lena has telekinetic powers she cannot yet control. Lena must keep her powers under wraps when she is separated from her mother to be a house girl, in close quarters with the master’s wife Elizabeth.

For more information about SFFILM’s artist development programs, visit sffilm.org/makers.

Recommendations from the SFFILM Programming Team: September 2020

It’s hard to believe, but it has been six months since the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order and SFFILM’s difficult decision to cancel the 2020 Festival. We hope you’ve been enjoying our virtual events and programs like Hong Kong Cinema, and we will be continuing to broaden our offerings for SFFILM members and our community of film lovers throughout the fall, so stay tuned. We thought it was a good time to check in with our intrepid Programming team to hear about some of the things they’ve been watching and some of the events they’re looking forward to.

AMANDA SALAZAR — PROGRAMMER
I am going to go with an animation theme, as that has really been something I have been leaning towards in my spare time.

Son of the White Mare (Roxie Virtual Cinema)
Prepare to be amazed by this animation from Hungarian animator Marcell Jankovics about a mare giving birth to three men to save the universe.

Feels Good Man (Roxie Virtual Cinema) 
I recently re-watched as I recommended this to some friends and really find that the issues being raised in this documentary are more important than ever.

The Midnight Gospel (Netflix) 
Released just when quarantine started in April, I am just catching up. Some great late-night fun with incredible animation to compliment the mind-opening conversations around existence and the human experience.

Something I’m excited about:
Fort Mason Flix, especially a very exciting announcement coming soon about some SFFILM nights at the new drive-in!

AUDREY CHANG—ASSOCIATE PROGRAMMER / GGA MANAGER
I continue to search out entertaining episodic shows and inspiring documentaries in my spare time. Here are a few films and shows I have enjoyed this summer:

Unorthodox (Netflix)
I was riveted by this incredible true story of a young bride’s escape and liberation from her restrictive marriage and family in Williamsburg. Shira Haas’s performance is simply masterful.

Boys State (Apple TV+) 
A shameless plug, but I found the SFFILM at Home screening and Q&A of Boys State to be the absolute highlight of the season. The film could not be more relevant and revelatory and the conversation with Steven, Rene, and Ben brought tears of joy.

Little Fires Everywhere (Hulu) 
My guilty pleasure. Such a penetrating look into race, class, and white privilege. And no one can “do” white privilege better than Reese Witherspoon! Also features a young and talented ensemble cast.

Something I’m excited about:
Screening submitted films for the 2021 SFFILM Festival and SFFILM’s upcoming Doc Stories series (Dec 3–6)!

ROD ARMSTRONG—ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMMING
With the recent death of Czech New Wave master Jiri Menzel, SFFILM’s Kurosawa Award Winner in 1990, it’s been illustrative to revisit some of his films including Larks on a String (1969, screened in the Festival as part of his award program in 1990) and I Served the King of England (Festival 2008). Both films are available on Amazon while the latter film is available on DVD from Netflix. Yes, I still get DVDs from Netflix!

Mrs. America (Hulu) 
Though some of the performances are imperfect to my mind, this history of the ERA years resonates against present-day politicians attempting to strip women of their rights. Plus, the fun clothes!

Palm Springs (Hulu)
So many folks have commented on the perfect pandemic movie; this Andy Samberg comedy is mine. Imagine waking up every day having to attend a wedding with a romantic partner you no longer like very much. I love the many different trajectories this film takes within its conceit.

Something I’m excited about:
Watching First Cow and I’m Thinking of Ending Things, and getting ready for SFFILM’s robust fall season. We hope to offer something for everyone—visit sffilm.org for the latest!

Summer 2020: A Message from SFFILM’s Executive Director Anne Lai

Dear friends,

As I enter my sixth month as Executive Director at SFFILM, I am eager to connect and share some reflections on my journey so far. While I sadly missed the opportunity to meet many of you in person with the cancellation of our Festival, I’m now excited to begin with this letter to invite an open dialogue with you — our community of film lovers and filmmakers — and look forward to doing so as I work alongside the Board and staff to create the future vision of our organization. While we will continue to find ways to support filmmakers and exhibit films in every way that we can, of paramount importance is to ensure that SFFILM moves forward as an explicitly anti-racist institution and a driver of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility.
 
With its 63-year history, SFFILM faces the critically important task of looking closely at itself. Conceived and launched as the first North American film festival, the organization gained a reputation as a showcase for the latest international films and a gathering spot for both Hollywood and foreign film notables. Over the past decade, SFFILM expanded to build a prominent Artist Development program dedicated to supporting emerging filmmakers and embracing the Bay Area filmmaking community, and significantly developed its Education program focused on students, teachers, and families. As I stepped into SFFILM, I was encouraged by the range, boldness, and diversity of voices emerging from our year-round work. And, as I joined the audience of our SFFILM at Home events, I was inspired by a sense of connection and shared love of film across the Bay Area. 
 
While we cherish this rich history and honor its impact, we also acknowledge the privilege that this organization was built upon. It is up to us to interrogate the biased and oppressive systems that we continue to operate within and push to dismantle them. This brings us to a series of questions we have been asking ourselves: How do we better support emerging artists? How do we better fulfill the needs and desires of a more diverse range of film viewers? How do we better address inequity in filmmaking? And how do we best achieve these goals through the lens of inclusion, social equity, and anti-racism? We have taken this to heart and want to share what we’ve been taking action on:

• Auditing our inner workings: We are collecting demographics from our submissions and selection pools across Programming and Artist Development to help us understand our body of artists — from there we can work to address inclusion and equity in a more impactful way.
• Building and sustaining a more diverse staff and Board: We will continue to invest resources in cultural competency skill-building and activation of internal systems that prioritize the diversity of identity, thought, and experience in our current and future team.
• Deepening our relationships with community partners: We are seeking strategic, candid feedback from Bay Area communities of color to create more bilateral partnerships that better shape the future of our programs and harness their intended impact.
• Actively sharing our process with you: Showing our work and listening to our community of film lovers and filmmakers on an ongoing basis are key to accomplishing our goals — none of this should be done in a vacuum.

I see film as one of the most compelling, contemporary, and beautiful forms of storytelling, and I believe storytelling has the power to change minds, to open the door to challenging dialogue, to heal emotional wounds, and to share a collective sense of humanity. We can be at our most vulnerable when watching a movie. And we can be at our most inspired and empowered. It is my goal to lead a film organization that brings that same level of vulnerability and empowerment into every space we create. Film remains a critical art form to reach so many people. As part of that ecosystem, we at SFFILM want to make sure we are embracing and championing a reflective and deep range of voices and perspectives — storytellers of color including Black, Latinx, Asian, MENA, and Indigenous; immigrant and international storytellers; LBGTQ+ and all gender storytellers; storytellers with disabilities; and intersections of all these communities — through every avenue of our programming.
 
All of us at SFFILM are part of this commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, and are continually learning (and unlearning) from our collaborators, our filmmakers, and our filmgoers. We thank you for all that you have shared so far and look forward to hearing from you along this journey of continued evolution and action.
 
More soon.

Visit sffilm.org for more information.

Meet the Finalists for the 2020 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants

The SFFILM Makers team has selected 11 outstanding non-fiction projects to be in the running for this year’s Documentary Film Fund grants, which support feature-length docs in the post-production phase. A total of $80,000 will be distributed to the winning projects in this cycle, which will be announced in late August. The Doc Film Fund next opens for applications in spring 2021.

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

The Doc Film Fund has an excellent track record for championing compelling, critically acclaimed films. Previous DFF winners include Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, which won a record number of juried awards at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for Academy Awards for both Best Documentary Feature and Best Foreign Language Film; RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance 2018 and was nominated for the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature; Liza Mandelup’s Jawline, which won a Special Jury Award at Sundance 2019 and is currently streaming on Hulu; Hassan Fazili’s Midnight Traveler, which won a Special Jury Award at Sundance 2019 and the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at the 2019 SFFILM Festival; Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family, which premiered at Sundance 2019 and won dozens of awards including a Creative Recognition Award for Best Editing from the International Documentary Association; Assia Boundaoui’s The Feeling of Being Watched, which has won audience awards at several film festivals and was broadcast nationwide on POV; Alyssa Fedele and Zachary Fink’s The Rescue List, which had its world premiere at the 2018 SFFILM Festival and was broadcast nationwide on POV; 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.

Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed $750,000 to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2020 Documentary Film Fund is supported by the Jenerosity Foundation.

2020 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND FINALISTS

After a Revolution (working title)
Giovanni Buccomino, director; Naziha Arebi and Alessandro Carroli, producers
“When injustice exceeds what you can withstand you’ll do anything.” This is the tale of a brother and sister who fought on opposite sides of the Libyan revolution. Filmed over six years, through an intimate lens, we get under the skin of an unknown country and experience at close range the psychological impact of modern warfare, international intervention, and the fragility of democracy.

Commuted
Nailah Jefferson, director; Darcy McKinnon, producer
Commuted is an intimate, meditative look at the life of Danielle Metz, a woman who faced three life sentences for non-violent drug offenses, and the familial impacts of long-term incarceration. Danielle’s sentence was commuted by President Obama in 2016, and now, back home after serving 23 years, she is starting life over again in her 50s, working to help other women and attempting to rebuild the family she left behind.

Have You Lost Your Mind Yet?
Yvan Iturriaga and Francisco Nuñez, co-directors; Josh Healey, producer
Xavier Dphrepaulezz is a 51-year-old survivor living his “third rebirth” as Fantastic Negrito, a two-time Grammy-winning blues man making an album about the mental health crisis devastating his family and community in Oakland, CA. Have you Lost Your Mind Yet? follows his creative process, unraveling his personal journey and that of his loved ones as he searches for truth, reconciliation, and ultimately, healing.

A Journey into the Storm
Sandra Salas, director; Dwjuan Fox, producer
For Sandy Salas, forgiveness and hope begin with a call from her nephew Lorenzo telling her he has been arrested for assaulting his wife. Having grown up in a home shattered by domestic violence, Sandy decides to help Lorenzo change his behavior and seeks the advice of experts on how to break the cycle of violence. However, in order to help her nephew, Sandy must stop running from her own traumatic past as a survivor of both domestic and gun violence, which means she must find a way to forgive a father that left scars on an entire family.

Milisuthando (working title)
Milisuthando Bongela, director; Marion Isaacs, producer
Milisuthando is a coming-of-age personal essay film about South Africa’s Model C generation — the first generation of kids to desegregate “whites only” schools at the end of apartheid. Explored through the memories of Milisuthando — who grew up during apartheid but didn’t know it was happening until it was over — the story is a meditation on power, intimacy, difference, and the weight of loving and fearing your enemy in a time of decolonization.

Mom, You Trespassed
Ilham Bakir, director; Dilek Aydin, producer
An 80-year-old woman is sentenced to three years of house arrest by Turkish courts for sending clothes to her son, a Kurdish guerilla, whom she has not seen 25 years.

Singing in the Wilderness
Dongnan Chen, director/producer; Violet Feng, producer
After hiding in the mountains for a century, a Miao ethnic Christian choir is discovered by a propaganda official and becomes a national sensation. Two young Miaos and all the villagers must reconcile their faith, identity, and love with the real world of China.

Squeegee
Clarke Lyons, co-director/producer; Gabe Dinsmoor, co-director/cinematographer; Jonna McKone, producer
Squeegee is a portrait of a group of young people and their wider community struggling to overcome poverty, and the ingenuity they bring to making a living on Baltimore’s streets. It is a story of transient, vulnerable kids who are overlooked and ignored by the communities that are supposed to support and protect them.

This World Is Not My Own
Petter Ringbom, director; Ruchi Mital, producer
Mythical forest creatures, chewing gum sculptures, a firebrand wrestler, the segregated south, a notorious murder case, a wealthy arts patron, a Kuwaiti art school — it’s all part of Nellie Mae Rowe’s fantastical universe. This World Is Not My Own reimagines this self-taught artist’s world and her life spanning the 20th century.

We Are Inside
Farah Kassem, director; Cynthia Choucair, producer
Having been away for a decade, Farah returns to her hometown of Tripoli in Lebanon to have one important conversation with her father Mustapha. But he’ll only listen if she joins his weekly all-male poetry club and addresses him in verses. And Farah doesn’t even like poetry.

Writing with Fire
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh, co-directors/producers
In one of the most socially oppressive and patriarchal states of India emerges a newspaper run by Dalit women. Chief reporter Meera leads the move to magnify the paper’s impact with an audacious decision — to transform from print to a digital news agency. Armed with smartphones, Meera and her journalists break traditions, be it on the frontlines of India’s biggest issues or within the confines of their homes, redefining what it means to be powerful.

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