Jun 26, 2013
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society announced today the filmmakers who have been awarded FilmHouse Residencies starting in August 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 SFFS networking events; 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 panelists who reviewed the applicants’ submissions were 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; Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360; and Trinity West, FilmHouse coordinator. The jury noted in a statement: “We were impressed with the caliber of applicants and it was extremely difficult narrowing it down to only three residents. The selection committee felt the diversity of these filmmakers’ backgrounds and the topics explored in their projects would make them great additions to the FilmHouse family. We look forward to helping these residents and their projects progress in profound and meaningful ways.”
The next application period opens in October for the next term of FilmHouse Residencies beginning in February 2014. For more information, visit sffs.org/Filmmaker360/FilmHouse-Residencies.
Grainger David – Nocturne, narrative feature, screenwriting, 12-month residency
Grainger David is a director from Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina. His NYU Grad Film thesis The Chair was the only American short film nominated for the Palme D’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The Chair also won Jury Prizes at the SXSW, Los Angeles, and Hollyshorts Film Festivals, and has screened at major festivals around the world, including Telluride, Hamptons and the 63rd Berlinale. David has been awarded grants from the Tribeca Film Institute, the Sloan Foundation, the National Board of Review and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
Nocturne is the story of a white cop on the verge of retirement who accidentally kills a young black teenager he suspects of a recent robbery and murder. In a moment of extreme weakness, he hides the boy’s body in a woodshed-only to return a day later to discover it has disappeared.
Gerard McMurray and Ephraim Walker – Riders, narrative feature, preproduction, 12-month residency
Gerard McMurray was born and raised in New Orleans’s 7th ward. He has been a filmmaker since he picked up his first Super 8 camera back in 2002, while an undergraduate at Howard University in Washington, DC. In 2011, McMurray was awarded the Director’s Guild of America Student Filmmaker Award for his short film Battle Buddy. He earned an MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts in May 2011. After moving to West Oakland to work as associate producer on Fruitvale Station, he has since been writing and developing material.
Ephraim Walker is a graduate of both USC Gould School of Law and USC School of Cinematic Arts, where he met Fruitvale Station writer/director Ryan Coogler and associate producer Gerard McMurray. Upon graduation they teamed up to develop that project with Walker serving as Bay Area production consultant. The film went on to win the Grand Jury and Audience Awards at Sundance 2013. Currently, Walker has partnered up with McMurray to work on several new projects.
Riders is about a group of rogue police officers who terrorize black residents in West Oakland by making false arrests, violently assaulting residents and committing myriad other civil rights violations. Ultimately, a 23-year-old rookie cop becomes entangled in the corruption and has to face a difficult decision between his obligation to the brotherhood of police and his own sense of morality.
Leah Wolchok – Very Semi-Serious, documentary feature, postproduction, 12-month residency
Leah Wolchok is a San Francisco-based filmmaker who received the inaugural Tribeca Film Institute/HBO “Documentary Screen Test” Fellowship and the Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) Media Makers Fellowship for her first feature documentaryVery Semi-Serious. She coproduced the documentary Ask Not, which aired on PBS’s Independent Lens. Her award-winning short films have played at festivals worldwide. She received a BA in English from Yale and an MA in Documentary Production from Stanford.
Very Semi-Serious is an offbeat meditation on humor, art and the genius of the New Yorker cartoon. The film takes an unprecedented behind-the-scenes look at the 88-year old New Yorker and introduces the cartooning legends and hopefuls who create the iconic cartoons that have inspired, baffled-and occasionally pissed off-all of us for decades.
Filmmaker360 is a leader in the field of non-profit support of the cinematic arts and offers unparalleled assistance and opportunities designed to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers nationwide. Filmmaker360 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 at every stage of production. Other elements of Filmmaker360 include project development consultation and fiscal sponsorship, A2E (Artist to Entrepreneur) training and networking events, membership discounts and information resources.
Recent Filmmaker360 success stories include Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the Prize of the Future in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; Short Term 12, Destin Daniel Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; and Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012, and earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. For information visit sffs.org/filmmaker360.