The Northwest Film Center and the Oregon Arts Commission announced filmmakers Kurtis Hough and Alain LeTourneau as the winners of the 2014 Oregon Media Arts Fellowship. The public announcement was made on the occasion of the February 6th screening of the work of 2011 Fellow, Elijah Hasan at the Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.
The Media Arts Fellowship supports Oregon filmmakers who have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the media arts. Jurors Enie Vaisburd, an independent filmmaker as well as Media Arts Instructor at Pacific University in Forest Grove and Matt Schulte, indie filmmaker and Digital Strategist with the Metropolitan Group, reviewed 19 submissions from applicants throughout the state, weighing artistic merit, the potential of the proposed activity to advance a given artistʹs work, and the feasibility of the projects proposed. The two 2014 winners will split a $5000 Fellowship which is funded solely by the Oregon Arts Commission. The Film Center continues to seek additional funders for the 2015 Fellowship. In previous years, the Fellowship has awarded as much as $15,000 to Oregon-based makers.
LeTourneau, a photographer and filmmaker is the co-founder of 40frames.org, a 16mm conservation initiative. His work has been exhibited internationally, including showings at Anthology Film Archives, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Film Studies Center at University of Chicago, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, International House Philadelphia, Images Festival (Toronto), Los Angeles Filmforum, Portland Art Museum, San Francisco Cinematheque, Unknown Pleasures (Berlin) and Vancouver International Film Centre.
LeTourneau’s Fellowship project, titled REAL ESTATE, “is a feature-length experimental documentary that explores how current trends in home financing and development have dictated the level of commitment to energy conservation, limited the visual character of urban Portland, and restricted affordable housing. The formal approach of REAL ESTATE employs long takes accompanied by select voice-over excerpts from recorded interviews,” states LeTourneau.
Kurtis Hough has, in the past ten years, completed 20 short films with more than 75 screenings locally and internationally in film festivals, art galleries, television and over a million viewers online. Hough’s Fellowship project, titled TO SEE MORE LIGHT, is a fifteen-minute film capturing live action footage of lava combined with computer-generated imagery. “My goal is to explore the movements and forms that flowing lava produce, and creatively illustrate how that structure relates to the flow of life on earth,” Hough explains. “This project is the next step in my experiments with varying visual techniques, including 3D computer animation and aerial video photography. I am always looking for fresh, new ways to create compelling cinematic experiences and the creation of this film will build on all the skills I’ve learned from each film I’ve made and shape the possibilities of future works.”
Jurors Schulte and Vaisburd were astonished by the field of applicants and wished they could help fund many more of the projects presented.
“Oregon filmmakers are percolating some ambitious ideas out there in both form and content. I was struck by how many applicants were tying their filmmaking to the very real world the films are created in, whether that be through a lens of social justice, contemplative space, or our historical roots.”—Matt Schulte
“It was inspiring to see so many worthwhile projects by Oregon media makers. There is breadth and depth both formally and in subject matter. I hope all applicants will keep working toward getting their projects realized. It was great to see so much thoughtfulness, creativity and vision!”—Enie Vaisburd
The application deadline for the 2015 Oregon Media Arts Fellowships is October 1, 2014. Application information is available from the Northwest Film Center, www.nwfilm.org; or by contacting Thomas Phillipson, thomas@nwfilm.org, or the Oregon Arts Commission, www.oregonartscommission.org.
The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts organization offering a variety of exhibition, education programs, and artist services throughout the region. The Center presents a program of foreign, classic, experimental, and independent works year-round at the Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum. For more information, visit www.nwfilm.org.