Aug 24, 2011
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society today announced the finalists for the new SFFS Documentary Film Fund, which over the next three years will disburse a series of annual grants totaling $300,000 to support feature-length documentaries in postproduction. Expected to grow in the coming years as further underwriting is secured, the Fund was inaugurated thanks to a generous gift from valued Film Society patrons Sharon and Larry Malcolmson.
The SFFS Documentary Film Fund was created to support singular nonfiction film work that is distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach. Each year from 2011 to 2013, a total of $100,000 will be disbursed to further new work by documentary filmmakers nationwide. Thirteen finalists have been selected for consideration in the first round.
2011 Finalists
Kai Beverly-Whittemore, Body of Work
Following the publication of her sister’s novel, based on her own childhood experiences posing nude for a photographer, director Kai Beverly-Whittemore reexamines the underlying danger of an artistic collaboration between a young girl and a grown man, which was perfectly acceptable to her dysfunctional family, yet quite controversial. Body of Work chronicles the director’s evolution from the naked girl in front of the camera to the thoughtful observer behind it. For information visit bodyofworkmovie.com.
Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson, An American Promise
In 1999, filmmakers Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson began documenting the experiences of two African American boys-their son and his best friend-as they started kindergarten at the prestigious, private, predominantly white Dalton School on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, just as the school began to actively cultivate a diverse student body. This unprecedented longitudinal documentary reveals the life-changing experiences of the boys and their families as they navigate the challenges of academic achievement further complicated by issues of race and class.
Priya Desai, Match +
How do you find love and marriage when you are HIV-positive? And how do you do that in India, where marriage is a must but HIV/AIDS is unspeakable? Shame led some people to marry without disclosing their diagnosis and others to remain single. Twenty-five years ago the doctor who discovered the first cases of HIV in India could do little more than console her patients. Now she also acts as their matchmaker, helping HIV-positive people fulfill their familial duty as well as their own wish to marry.
Lisa Fruchtman, Sweet Dreams
Kiki Katese, a pioneering Rwandan theater director, founded Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda’s first and only women’s drumming troupe, open to women from both sides of the 1994 conflict, as a place for women to build new relationships and heal the wounds of the past. As a way to provide for their families Katese suggested that the women open Rwanda’s first and only ice cream shop. Sweet Dreams follows the drummers as they work to build this new venture and create a future of hope and possibility for themselves. For information visit sweetdreamsrwanda.com.
Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, Satan Comes to Eden
In 1929, a physician left Germany with his lover to make a life on the deserted Galapagos Island of Floreana. The international press rapidly trumpeted their exploits as the “Adam and Eve of the Galapagos” and with this fame others flocked to the island, each seeking to realize their own personal ambitions. These denizens included a family determined to become the Swiss Family Robinson of the Galapagos and an Austrian baroness who declared herself the empress of Floreana. Satan Comes to Eden is the tale of disparate dreams colliding on a harsh island, resulting in mysterious disappearances and a likely murder. The film interweaves this 1930s mystery with stories and present-day interviews of other Galapagos pioneers. For information visit gellergoldfine.com.
Lauren Greenfield, The Queen of Versailles
The Queen of Versailles is about the rise and fall of a billionaire family who tries to build the biggest house in America. It follows an eccentric husband and wife whose biographies read like classic rags-to-riches success stories. When the banking crisis causes their economic ruin, their story becomes more like a Shakespearean tragedy than the American Dream.
Zachary Heinzerling, Cutie & the Boxer
Cutie & the Boxer chronicles a unique love story between two Japanese artists and reveals the roots of their relationship. Ushio Shinohara achieved notoriety in postwar Japan with his avant-garde boxing paintings, and in 1969 moved to New York City in search of international recognition. Three years later, at age 19, Noriko left Japan to study art in New York and was instantly captivated by the middle-aged Shinohara. She abandoned her education and became the wife of an unruly, alcoholic husband. Forty years into their marriage the Shinoharas’ art and personalities are the basis for a deep and challenging symbiosis. Cutie & the Boxer reveals painful, universal truths about the lives of artists and examines how the creative process intersects with reality, identity and marriage.
Adam Keker, The Executioner Dreams of a Better Life
From 1975 to 1979, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people in Cambodia, a quarter of the population, more than the total number of deaths caused by the crises in Rwanda, Bosnia, Sierra Leone and Darfur combined. In The Executioner Dreams of a Better Life, members of Pol Pot’s inner circle try to explain what happened and shed light on the Khmer Rouge’s central figure. The perpetrators of the genocide struggle to come to terms with their past, narrate their history, justify the choices they made 30 years ago and face the public reckoning now imminent at the Khmer Rouge genocide trial in Phnom Penh.
Debbie Lum, Seeking Asian Female
Seeking Asian Female documents a 65-year-old American parking lot attendant’s Internet search for a young Asian wife. A 30-year old woman from China accepts his proposal and arrives in San Francisco on a three-month fiancée visa. She unpacks, cleans his messy apartment, prepares home-cooked Chinese meals and laughs at his jokes. He rushes to plan the Western wedding of her dreams, which he can ill afford. When she uncovers disturbing clues to his past obsession with young Asian women the fights begin. She must decide whether to go through with the marriage or return to China, and he must decide to commit to one woman. For information visit seekingasianfemale.com.
Beth Murphy, The List
Kirk Johnson is a young American fighting to save thousands of Iraqis whose lives are in danger because they worked for the U.S. to help rebuild Iraq. After leading reconstruction teams in Baghdad and Fallujah, Johnson returned home only to discover that many of his former Iraqi colleagues were being killed, kidnapped or forced into exile by radical militias. Frustrated by a stagnating government bureaucracy in the U.S. that failed to protect its Iraqi allies, Johnson compiled a list of their names and helped them find refuge and a new life in America. The List traces the evolution of Johnson’s unlikely humanitarian mission while revealing the personal struggles of Iraqis who are living in hiding or stranded in countries that don’t want them, as well as a few who have resettled in the United States. Johnson, who helped more than a thousand Iraqis reach the safety of American shores, struggles to determine the limit of his commitment to humanitarian action.
Aaron Naar, Mateo
Matthew Stoneman is a soft-spoken sociopath pushed to the margins of white America only to be reborn as Mateo, the most notorious middle-aged Caucasian mariachi singer in Los Angeles. Lauded throughout Latin American communities in Southern California as the gringo with the voice of an angel, Mateo’s tumultuous past, including his eight-year prison sentence for robbery, is overshadowed by his new, apparently reformed lifestyle. Tiring of the arduous life of a mariachi, Stoneman plans to return to his roots as a singer/songwriter and invests hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete an album of original compositions. His aspirations are complicated by financial setbacks, familial discord and a tumultuous past that’s never too far behind. shootthesky.com/mateo.
Tamara Perkins, Life After Life
After committing unthinkable acts as teenagers and being incarcerated for decades, two men are given a chance to rebuild their lives and the communities they once destroyed. Once released from San Quentin State Prison, they recognize the preciousness of their regained freedom, endeavor to make every second count and strive for acceptance in the world outside the prison walls. One man struggles to balance community service, college and love, while the other spends every moment possible with his family, assuming the role of their spiritual leader, until a Supreme Court decision places his life in limbo. For information visit lifeafterlifemovie.com.
Bill Siegel, The Trials of Muhammad Ali
The Trials of Muhammad Ali brings to the forefront Ali’s toughest bout, his battle to overturn the five-year prison sentence he received for refusing U.S. military service. Prior to becoming arguably the most recognizable face on earth, Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali and found himself in the crosshairs of conflicts concerning civil rights, religion and wartime dissent. He faced the fury of an American public enraged by his opposition to the Vietnam War and unwilling to accept his conversion to Islam. From 1967 to 1970, Ali lived in exile within the U.S., stripped of his heavyweight belt and banned from boxing. His struggle for justice went all the way to the Supreme Court.
SFFS Documentary Film Fund grants will be awarded in the fall of each year. Exact amounts of individual grants and the number of grants made will be determined on an annual basis. As with all Film Society grants, in addition to the cash awards, recipients will receive various benefits through the Film Society’s comprehensive and dynamic filmmaker services programs. For information visit sffs.org/filmmaker-services.
The SFFS Documentary Film Fund is the newest initiative of the Film Society’s Filmmaker Services. This production assistance program is designed to foster the creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers nationwide. It includes project development consultation, membership discounts and benefits, fiscal sponsorship, grants, residencies and information resources. The Film Society’s grant programs have awarded a combined total of $870,000 since 2008 and will award up to $1,855,000 through 2013.
For more information on the Fund and the other Film Society cash awards visit sffs.org/Filmmaker-Services/Grants-and-Prizes.