This year’s Oregon Media Arts Fellowship given each year to filmmakers who have shown a commitment to the moving image arts and pushing their practice with new and engaging work was awarded to Mila Zuo.
Filmmaking
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Seattle International Film Festival Picks 4 Films for 2019 New Works-in-Progress Forum
LINA FROM LIMA (Chile/Argentina/Peru) | Director Maria Paz González The Seattle International Film Festival announced the 2019 Film Teams for the four feature films – two documentary and two narratives, and Industry Mentors for the New Works-in-Progress (WIP) Forum.
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Film Independent Selects 13 Filmmakers with 8 Film Projects for 2019 Documentary Lab
Lift Like a Girl by Mayye Zayed Film Independent has selected 13 filmmakers and eight projects for its 2019 Documentary Lab, an intensive two-week program designed to help filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary films.
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5 Indie Directors Selected for Film Independent’s 19th Directing Lab
Film Independent has selected five up and coming directors for its 19th annual Directing Lab, an intensive eight-week program designed to support emerging independent film directors on their feature films. This year’s creative advisors and guest speakers include Andrew Ahn, Ruth Atkinson, Daniel Barnz, Ava Berkofsky, Destin Cretton, Catherine Hardwicke, Tina Mabry, Alex O’Flinn, Lisa Robertson, and Emily Schweber.
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11 Screenwriters Selected for Sundance Institute’s 7th Screenwriters Intensive
2015 June Screenwriters Lab Brent Green, Frances Bodomo, and Rashaad Ernesto Green at the 2015 June Screenwriters Lab. © 2017 Sundance Institute | Photo by Fred Hayes. Eleven screenwriters have been selected to participate in Sundance Institute’s seventh annual Screenwriters Intensive in Los Angeles, to take place February 28 – March 1, 2019. Part of the Institute’s commitment to introducing the industry to an inclusive pipeline of exciting new storytellers, the Intensive is a two-day workshop for writers or writer/directors from underrepresented communities developing their first fiction feature. Fellows at the Intensive will advance the art and craft of their work under the guidance of experienced filmmakers and in collaboration with Institute’s Feature Film Program.
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17 Indie Films Awarded Rooftop Films 2018-19 Filmmakers Fund Grants
Dandelion Seed, courtesy of Ru Kuwahata & Max Porter Rooftop Films awarded seventeen cash and service grants to alumni filmmakers, including the Rooftop Films Water Tower Feature Film Grant, which was presented to director Anastasia Kirillova and co-directors Ru Kuwahata & Max Porter. Kirillova will receive $20,000 to help finish her film In the Shadows of Love, and Kuwahata & Porter will receive $10,000 to support their film Dandelion Seed.
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37 New Feature Film Projects Selected for 2019 Berlinale Co-Production Market
Berlinale Co-Production Market 37 new feature film projects whose producers are looking to team up with co-production partners from other countries have been chosen to participate in the 16th edition of Berlinale Co-Production Market, taking place From February 9 to 13, 2019.
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Chinese Filmmaker Siyi Chen Wins 2019 SFFILM New American Fellowship
Siyi Chen Chinese filmmaker Siyi Chen is the winner of the 2019 SFFILM New American Fellowship, supporting the development of her current documentary work, including My Grandma’s a Dancer (in development) and People’s Hospital (in post-production).
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7 Indie Films Awarded $240,000 in Fall 2018 SFFILM Rainin Grants
Seven indie narrative films will receive a total of $240,000 in funding in the latest round of SFFILM Rainin Grants to support the next stage of their creative process, from screenwriting to post-production. SFFILM Rainin Grants are awarded twice annually to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community and/or meaningfully explore pressing social issues.
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 Grant program has awarded over $5 million to more than 100 projects since its inception, including Boots Riley’s indie phenomenon Sorry to Bother You, which was released in theaters nationwide this summer; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year; Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, which closed the 2017 Cannes Director’s Fortnight program; 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 SXSW 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).
The jury noted in a statement: “We are thrilled to support these seven ambitious projects and the voices—both lyrical and incisive—of these talented filmmakers. This cohort of SFFILM Rainin grantees are grappling beautifully with questions of how we define ourselves and our homes in a world that is constantly changing. We very much look forward to playing a part in elevating their visions in the months ahead.”
FALL 2018 SFFILM RAININ GRANT WINNERS
18+ Ceylan Özgün Özçelik, writer/director/producer; Armagan Lale, producer — screenwriting – $25,000 On the feast of the sacrifice, a family gathering of women turns into a tragicomic night of bloody vengeance. all dirts roads taste of salt Raven Jackson, writer/director; Maria Altamirano, producer — screenwriting – $25,000 In lyrical, non-linear portraits evoking the texture of memories, all dirt roads taste of salt viscerally and experientially explores the life of a Black woman in the American South, from her youth to her older years. Cicada Matthew Fifer, writer/co-director; Kieran Mulcare, co-director; Jeremy Truong and Ramfis Myrthil, producers — post-production – $40,000 Some things are worth waiting 17 years for, others should have come out sooner. Colewell Tom Quinn, writer/director; Craig Shilowich, Alexandra Byer, and Matthew Thurm, producers — post-production – $50,000 For 35 years, Nora Pancowski has been the postmaster of Colewell, Pennsylvania. She runs the office out of her home and has become the center of this community, which has no other common space. When Nora receives word that her office will be closed, she must decide whether to relocate and take a new job or face retirement in Colewell. Freeland Kate McLean and Mario Furloni, writer/directors; Laura Heberton, producer — post-production – $50,000 Aging pot farmer Devi suddenly finds her world shattered as she races to bring in what could be her final harvest. KEE-kay Pedro González Kuhn, director; Rodrigo Ordoñez, writer; Vanessa Perez and Laura Irene Arvizu, producers — development – $25,000 Enrique is deported to Mexico, a country he has never called home. As he struggles to integrate, survive, and force his way back to the US, he meets Rita, who provides shelter and protection that he has never had before, which makes him question where home really is. Sandy Song, The High Priestess of Souls Pete Lee, writer/director — screenwriting – $25,000 Sandy Song, a grumpy middle-aged grifter, becomes the sole defender of Oakland’s Chinatown in a battle against loan sharks, white saviors, and demons.
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5 Filmmakers Selected for 5th Ikusmira Berriak Development Program
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ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT, Raven Jackson[/caption]
Out of 174 submissions, five film makers from Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland and the USA have been selected for the fifth edition of the Ikusmira Berriak development and residency program for audiovisual projects. The selection committee – comprising representatives from the International Centre for Contemporary Culture Tabakalera, the San Sebastián Film Festival and Elías Querejeta Film School selected Jo ta ke by Aitziber Olaskoaga, a film maker from the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country; Antier noche (The Night Before Yesterday) by Alberto Martín, in the Spanish film makers section; Sin dolor (Painless) by Michael Wahrmann, in the international category, and; two from among the participants in the most recent editions of Nest Film Students – All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt by Raven Jackson, and Un personaje volador (A Flying Character) by Martina Juncadella.
In Jo ta ke (Rise up to win), the visual artist Aitziber Olaskoaga (Bilbao, 1980) – director of the medium-length film La sonrisa telefónica (The Telephonic Smile) and collaborator on the films Faux Guide and Al Nervión (To The Nervión ) – brings us a video essay on nationalism and the construction of national identity in the Basque Country. The short film starts out with the Negu Gorriak concert in 1990 outside Herrera de la Mancha prison and gives a first-hand account of the director’s awakening and personal search. It examines images from memory and thoughts on the political discourse of the Abertzale Left and discusses her father, from whom she has ‘inherited’ her political activism.
Alberto Martín (Madrid, 1986), director of Mi amado, las montañas (My Beloved, the Mountains) (Best Short Film at the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival), uses Antier noche to depict youth in today’s Southern Europe. The world of hunting meets mobile applications in this documentary feature film.
Michael Wahrmann (Montevideo, 1979) has already taken his first feature film (Avanti Popolo, 2012) to festivals such as Rotterdam and Marseilles, and premiered his short film The Beast (2016) at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. In Ikusmira Berriak he will develop the fictional feature film Sin dolor (Painless), co-written with Diego Lerman -Best Script in San Sebastián for Una especie de familia (A Sort of Family)-, about a retired French diplomat and his Brazilian wife who purchase an abandoned farm on an idyllic island in north-east Brazil, only to discover that it is inhabited by the descendants of an old German colony. The director describes the film as a social terror thriller which poses questions about limits, borders and the class war.
In All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, the poet, photographer and film maker Raven Jackson (Tennessee) takes a poetic look at the nature of memory and at how events from one woman’s youth are reflected in her adult life, since she is 3 until she is 60, in Mississippi. Jackson’s short film Nettles premiered in the Nest Film Students section of the last San Sebastián Film Festival.
The short film Fiora by Martina Juncadella (Buenos Aires, 1992) was selected in the International Film Students Meeting at the 2017 San Sebastián Film Festival and won Best Short Film at BAFICI. In Un personaje volador, a writer attempts to work on his new book in the Ritz – a legendary hotel in central Buenos Aires – after separating from his partner and still grieving over the death of his mother.
Four projects selected from previous editions of Ikusmira Berriak have been completed and screened in San Sebastián: the short films El extraño (The Stranger) by Pablo Álvarez, Calipatria by Leo Calice and Gerhard Treml, and Gwendolyn Green by Tamyka Smith were screened at Zabaltegi-Tabakalera in 2016 and 2017, and the feature film Trote directed by Xacio Baño was shown at Zabaltegi-Tabakalera following its screening at the Locarno Festival. Maider Oleaga from Bilbao, another resident from the first edition, has just premiered Muga deitzen da pausoa (The Step Is Called Limit) at the Gijón International Film Festival.
RAVEN JACKSON
ALL DIRT ROADS TASTE OF SALT RAVEN JACKSON (USA) In lyrical, non-linear portraits evoking the texture of memories, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt viscerally and experientially explores the life of a Black woman in the American South – from youth to her older years. Director’s bio/filmography A native of Tennessee, Raven Jackson is an award-winning filmmaker, poet, & photographer currently attending New York University’s Graduate Film Program. In her work, gray areas of life are often explored. She is particularly interested in stories which add texture to the pivotal experience of coming-of-age and/or into one’s sexuality – as well as the body’s relationship to nature. A 2018 IFP Marcie Bloom Fellow, her short film, Nettles, recently had its International Premiere at the 66th edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, TriQuarterly, Kweli, PANK, and elsewhere. Director’s note All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt is, in essence, a lyrical conversation between all of the protagonist’s selves at different ages and experiences in her life. The film is told non-linearly to speak to the nature of memory and how events from youth are often mirrored in adulthood. With All Dirt Roads Taste Of Salt , I’m exploring the significant shifts and sparks in the protagonist’s life and how the ripple of them spills out across years.ALBERTO MARTÍN
ANTIER NOCHE ALBERTO MARTÍN (SWITZERLAND – SPAIN) Hunting takes place in the countryside of southern Extremadura during the cold winter months. Ana (20) and Juan Luis (25) are a young couple in charge of leading the dogs in this ritual event. For some time, Ana has been thinking about leaving her town for the capital. The two must negotiate the terms of their relationship and whether or not they want to stay together. Martín (11), Ana’s younger brother, is growing up in a rural environment alongside the violence of nature. A rupture in the present may evoke the memory of a fracture between an old world on its way out and an emerging modern one. Director’s bio/filmography (Madrid, 1986) Alberto grew up in Alcalá de Henares and now lives and works in Geneva. He is a film editor and director who studied Visual Arts at Geneva University of Art and Design. His work has been exhibited in arts centers, museums and international film festivals, including Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Filmmuseum München, Entrevues Belfort and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. His film Mi amado, las montañas (My Beloved, the Mountains) won Best Short Film at the Las Palmas International Film Festival and the Peninsulas Prize at the Curtocircuíto International Film Festival in Santiago de Compostela. Director’s note Antier noche is something I’ve always heard my grandmother say. It refers to something that took place the night before yesterday. The past is narrated from the present. The piece stems from my wish to make a film in a forgotten corner of the world, with a group of young people I know and who I’ve already worked with. I wanted to rebuild their story with them, the same story that starts with my family in the 1960s, a time when emigration was one way that people adapted to a time of constant progress. It still is.MICHAEL WAHRMANN
SIN DOLOR MICHAEL WAHRMANN (BRAZIL) A retired French couple buy an abandoned house on a paradisiac island in the northeast of Brazil. The island is more isolated than what they had imagined. To their surprise, upon arriving on the land they acquired, they find a small fishing village inhabited by descendants of an old German colony; strange scars on the villager’s bodies hide a secret kept for decades. A class struggle over land and borders is established raising questions about the limits and different kinds of pain in a social horror thriller. Director’s bio/filmography Michael is a director and producer. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, lives in Brazil since 2004, he graduated in cinema at FAAP in Sao Paulo in 2007. His short films Avós (2009), Oma (2011), The Beast (2016) and his feature film Avanti Popolo (2012) were shown in many international and national festivals, as the Directors´ Fortnight in Cannes, Berlinale, Rotterdam and Brasília and received more than 60 awards over the years. As producer, he funded Sancho&Punta and produced feature films such as Los territorios by Ivan Granovsky; Invisible, by Pablo Giorgelli; Elon Não Acredita na Morte by Ricardo Alves Jr and others. Director’s note From the very beginning, this film came to me as a horror narrative. I’m not particularly fond of genre movies, and I never explored genre in my films before. Nevertheless, I thought this initial concept should be used for the basic dramatic structure of the film. At the same time, what seems at first to be a clear genre construction should find a way to transcend the obvious into a more abstract audiovisual form. It should detach from the genre system and rules and turn into a personal expression on the fervent social and political issues of current brazil.AITZIBER OLASKOAGA
JO TA KE AITZIBER OLASKOAGA (SPAIN) In 1990, Negu Gorriak played their first concert outside Herrera de la Mancha prison and later sold a VHS recording of the event. The tape became a symbol for followers of the Abertzale left. Jo ta ke is a video essay which uses images from the video and the director’s own memories as its starting point. It opens up reflections on the construction of national identity and the links between fatherland, father and patriotism. The project relates the author’s political awakening in the politicized and polarized context of the Basque Country. Director’s bio/filmography Work-in-progress – Jo ta ke, director, co-writer and co-producer. 2017 – Una alegría loca (Crazy Joy), direction, editing, sound and cinematography. 2017 – Top bill for the LA OLA film showcase, direction, cinematography and editing. 2016 – La sonrisa telefónica (The Telephonic Smile), direction, editing, screenplay and cinematography. 2011 – Faux guide, workshop together with Red Caballo. Director’s note In 1992 -the only year in which Negu Gorriak did not release a record- my mother ended an unhappy marriage. Though I’d never heard the word feminism, I began standing up to an authoritarian and misogynistic father figure. Years later, I asked myself why the followers of a leftist ideology could organize themselves to fight against certain forms of oppression and yet was incapable of doing the same against others, such as the patriarchy. These memories would pave the way for reflections on the links between father, fatherland and nationalist ideologies. Can images be tools for imagining other possibilities of past and future?MARTINA JUNCADELLA
UN PERSONAJE VOLADOR MARTINA JUNCADELLA (ARGENTINA) A writer moves to a mythical hotel in central Buenos Aires while in the depths of grief following the death of his mother. While tackling his next novel, he wanders the city with a roll of paintings that he can’t open. His life grows complicated following a series of chance and enlightening encounters with strangers. One long night, he finally manages to unfurl the works his mother left behind. From now on, he won’t be just him: he’ll be Pablo, a lawless yet gentle beast, and Ursula, a bitter and melancholic woman. Three identities, three lives, all forged around one experience. Director’s bio/filmography Martina Juncadella (Buenos Aires, 1992) acts, films, writes poetry and co-directs the Argentine publishing house Socios Fundadores. In 2016 she took part in the Proyecto Documental film workshop coordinated by Andrés di Tella. During that time she worked on two short films: Mensajes (Messages) (2016), and Fiora (2017), the latter co-directed with Martín Vilela. Fiora was selected for EIECINE 2017 (International Film Students Meeting, part of the San Sebastián Film Festival). In 2018, she directed No me imagino siendo vieja (I Can’t Imagine Being Old), a short film written in collaboration with Jacqueline Golbert, who also stars in the movie. The film had its international premiere at the 2018 Biarritz Latin Film Festival, where it won the Liziéres Prize. She has published the poetry collections 8 poemas (8 poems) (2015) and Prendan el horno (Turn on the oven) (Socios Fundadores, 2018). Director’s note How many identities fit into one life? How many do we know about? How many are we ignorant of? At the origin of each one, and throughout its exploration, is the excitement of the possibilities that influence and define them. Un personaje volador sets this constellation in motion. Inspired by a writer (Iosi Havilio) who goes through a crisis after losing his mother, the Argentinian painter Mónica Rossi, the character sets out to meet other lives which are as fictional and real as his own, inhabiting and embodying each one throughout its unique evolution. These other identities talk, think and act – in parallel and solo – each with their own color, rhythm, language, music and silence. Original idea and development: Iosi Havilio and Martina Juncadella
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Yance Ford, Alexandria Bombach Among Inaugural Class of Sundance Institute’s Momentum Fellows
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Alexandria Bombach[/caption]
Sundance Institute announced today the eight members of the inaugural class of the Momentum Fellowship, a full-year program of deep, customized creative and professional support for writers, directors, and producers from underrepresented communities working across documentary and feature filmmaking, episodic content, and virtual reality, who are poised to take the next step in their careers.
The Momentum Fellowship evolved from the former Women at Sundance Fellowship, a highly successful model that merited evolution and expansion for impact across a greater cohort of underrepresented communities. Those eligible for this larger, more intersectional program now include artists identifying as women, non-binary, and/or transgender, artists of color, and artists with disabilities.
The 2019 Momentum Fellows are Alexandria Bombach, Amber Fares, Josh Feldman, Yance Ford, Ro Haber, Megha Kadakia, Alysa Nahmias, and Eva Vives.
“Our inaugural class of fellows bring such an array of unique talents and experiences to the creative table, and we are beyond excited for this year of collaboration and development,” said Karim Ahmad, Director of Outreach & Inclusion. “We also hope that this intersectional approach will be a model for increasingly vital conversations about allyship across demographic silos in the artist and industry communities at large.”
“After supporting six classes of Women at Sundance fellows, we are thrilled to expand the fellowship to include voices from underrepresented communities. The Momentum Fellowship offers critical support so that artists can fulfill their potential, create sustainable careers, and form a close-knit cohort that will develop into an invaluable alliance,” said Caroline Libresco, Director of Women at Sundance.
The robust, year-long Momentum Fellowship is made possible thanks to the generous support and strategic partnership of The Harnisch Foundation and Warner Bros. Pictures. The Fellowship includes professional mentorship; coaching through the Harnisch Coaching Program offered by Renee Freedman and Company; an artist sustainability grant; travel grants to the Sundance Film Festival to participate in curated activities; introductions to branded and episodic content; and bespoke year-round support.
Additionally, Sundance Institute has partnered with Warner Bros. Pictures to establish the Sundance Institute | Warner Bros. Feature Film Directors Track. In keeping with the company’s greater goals of inclusion and commitment to diversity in front of and behind the camera, Warner Bros. is dedicated to helping nurture and grow this new class of Fellows, which includes access to executives and workshops hosted on the studio’s Burbank lot. The Momentum Fellowship Program is meant to allow for customized activities and sub-groups where necessary, while still organized under the banner of an intersectional fellowship. Sundance Institute gratefully acknowledges each of the contributors to its Outreach and Inclusion Department and Women at Sundance, whose partnership has enabled the Institute to support dozens of bold and underrepresented voices in independent storytelling throughout the evolution of its programming.
2019 Momentum Fellows
Alexandria Bombach
Alexandria Bombach is an award-winning cinematographer, editor, and director from Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her feature-length documentary On Her Shoulders follows Nadia Murad, a 23-year-old Yazidi woman who survived genocide and sexual slavery committed by ISIS. Repeating her story to politicians and media, Nadia was thrust onto the world stage as the voice of her people. Away from the podium, she must navigate bureaucracy, fame, and people’s good intentions. On Her Shoulders premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival where Alexandria won Best Directing in the U.S. Documentary Competition. Her first feature-length documentary, Frame By Frame, follows the lives of four Afghan photojournalists who are facing the realities of building Afghanistan’s first free press. The film had its world premiere at SXSW 2015, went on to win more than 25 film festival awards and screened in front of the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani. Alexandria continued her work in Afghanistan in 2016, directing the Pulitzer Center-supported New York Times Op-Doc, Afghanistan By Choice – an intertwining portrait of five Afghans who must weigh the costs of leaving or staying as the country’s security deteriorates. In addition to her feature documentary work, Alexandria’s production company RED REEL has been producing award-winning, character-driven stories since 2009. Her 2013 film Common Ground unearths the emotion behind a proposed wilderness-area addition for a community in Montana – as heritage and tradition are seemingly defended on both sides. Her Emmy Award-winning 2012 series MoveShake captured the internal conflicts of people dedicating their lives to a cause. Alexandria is currently working on her next feature documentary, writing her first narrative script, and freelancing as a cinematographer and an editing consultant. If time allows, you can also find her weaving blankets on her loom or making ceramics on her wheel.Amber Fares
Amber Fares is an award-winning documentary director, producer and cinematographer. Her recent projects include Senior Producer/Cinematographer on America Inside Out with Katie Couric (2018), which aired on National Geographic, and cinematographer and co-producer on the feature length documentary The Judge (2017), which premiered at TIFF and will air on PBS this fall. Amber was also brought on as an Associate Producer on Transparent Season 4 (2017), where she consulted specifically on storylines that took place in Palestine. Amber’s debut film, Speed Sisters (2015), premiered at HotDocs and is currently playing on Netflix globally. The Saudi Gazette named it one of the top 10 films to watch on Netflix and The New York Times called it “subtly rebellious and defiantly optimistic.” Amber is currently working with Grace Lee and Marjan Safinia on the feature length documentary called And She Could Be Next about women of color running for political office across America. Amber’s films have won numerous awards and have played in film festivals around the world, including TIFF, Sheffield, Hot Docs, IDFA, CPH:Dox and Doc NYC. Her work has been featured on CNN, Al Jazeera, ALLURE, Amazon, PBS, VICE and National Geographic. Amber was a 2015 Sundance Catalyst Fellow, 2014 Sundance Institute Edit and Story Lab Fellow and spoke at TedXWomen Barcelona 2013.Josh Feldman
Josh Feldman is a lifelong writer, whose first recognition came in the form of a Young Playwrights Award from Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. He is currently in production on the second season of an original television series he co-created and wrote for SundanceNow, This Close, on which he also stars. The show had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018, where he premiered the webseries the show is based on the year before.Yance Ford
Yance Ford is an Oscar and Emmy nominated director based in New York City. His debut film Strong Island was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 90th Academy Awards when Ford made history as the first trans director nominated for an Oscar. Strong Island won the Gotham Award for Best Documentary, the Sheffield DocFest Tim Hetherington Award, the Full Frame Filmmaker & Charles E. Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award and the Black Film Critics Circle Award for Best Documentary. Strong Island premiered at the Sundance Film Festival winning a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling. Strong Island launched globally on Netflix in September 2017. A graduate of Hamilton College and the Production Workshop at Third World Newsreel, Ford is a Sundance Institute Fellow, a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a Creative Capital Grantee and the 2017 IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award. During his tenure as Series Producer at POV his curatorial work garnered over five Emmy Awards and 16 Emmy nominations. Strong Island was nominated for a George Foster Peabody Award and at the 11th Annual Cinema Eye Honors became the first nominee ever to win for Best Direction and Best Debut and Best Feature. The film was recently nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. The Root named Yance Ford among the 100 most influential African Americans of 2017 and in September he became a Sundance Institute Art of Non-Fiction grantee for a nonfiction project in development. Yance is represented by Jessica Lacy, ICM Partners and Nina Shaw, Del Shaw Moonves Tanaka Finkelstein & Lezcano.Ro Haber
Ro Haber is an aesthetically minded writer and director whose work spans the Narrative, Documentary and VR spaces. They are a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts and have been a fellow of Film Independent’s Episodic Lab, Outfest’s Screenwriting lab, AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women, and Universal’s inaugural Directing Program. They were listed on The Alice Initiative’s 2018 list of directors ready to helm studio films and most recently was a 2018 Ryan Murphy TV HALF Program fellow, shadowing on FX’s new show, Pose. They won the Audience Award at LA Film Festival and the New Orleans Film Festival, a Webby Award, the Grand Jury Prize at Outfest, and was nominated for a 2017 GLAAD award for their digital documentary series New Deep South, which premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Their doc series, Braddock, PA (on Topic) garnered praise from The New York Times and The New Yorker. Their most recent branded projects are with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Stink Studios x LBGT Center x Google, and Tribeca x Bulgari. Obsessed with young, digital culture, Haber has recently ventured into the world of Virtual Reality. They were a 2017 Sundance New Frontiers Lab Fellow for Belle of the Ball, a VR project they are co-directing with Silas Howard and Pussykrew. They were a speaker at the Engadget Alternative Realities conference, which showcases the latest thinkers in Virtual and Augmented Reality. Their next project is called Chingonas, a young adult television show with conceptual horror elements.Megha Kadakia
Megha Kadakia brings a unique blend of business experience and artistic vision to the world of independent filmmaking through her production company Blue Velocity Pictures. Kadakia has produced: Miss India America, starring Tiya Sircar and Hannah Simone, currently on Netflix worldwide; Raspberry Magic, starring Alison Brie and Bella Thorne, distributed to STARZ; and The Tiger Hunter, starring Danny Pudi, Jon Heder, Rizwan Manji, Karen David and Kevin Pollak, released nationwide Fall of 2017 through Shout Factory! and Regal Cinemas and currently on Netflix. Kadakia’s latest feature Hummingbird, with writer/director Tanuj Chopra and actress Sheetal Sheth, was filmed August 2018. Kadakia recently co-founded the global media entertainment brand for young girls, Super Amazing Princess Heroes, and works with filmmakers and activists to create social impact entertainment as Head of Media Production at Creative Visions. Kadakia worked at Disney | ABC, Deloitte Consulting and several film production organizations in the capacity of Business Development and Finance. She received an MBA from Columbia University, Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in BioChemistry and Specialization in Business from UCLA.Alysa Nahmias
Alysa Nahmias is an award-winning filmmaker and founder of the Los Angeles-based production company Ajna Films. Alysa’s directorial debut feature, Unfinished Spaces, co-directed with Benjamin Murray, won a 2012 Spirit Award, numerous festival prizes, and was selected for Sundance Film Forward. Unfinished Spaces is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. As a creative producer, Alysa’s most recent film is the Sundance award-winning Unrest (2017) directed by Jennifer Brea. Her producing credits also include: the Los Angeles Film Festival award-winning fiction feature No Light and No Land Anywhere (2016) by director Amber Sealey with executive producer Miranda July; Afternoon Of A Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq directed by Nancy Buirski with creative advisor Martin Scorsese (2013); and Shield and Spear directed by Petter Ringbom (2014). As a consulting producer, Nahmias frequently advises on films such as Academy Award-nominated director Jennifer Redfearn’s Tocando La Luz (2015) and Abby Epstein and Ricki Lake’s Weed the People (2018). Alysa’s work has been shown at festivals and exhibitions worldwide, including Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, HotDocs, Sheffield Doc/Fest, CPH:DOX, Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Sound + Vision, and has been released theatrically in the US and UK, exhibited at MoMA and the Venice Biennale, and broadcast on Netflix, PBS, and HBO. Alysa is a 2017 Sundance Creative Distribution Fellow, 2016 Sundance Catalyst Fellow, and 2013 Film Independent Fellow. She holds a B.A. from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study and an M.Arch with a Certificate in Media + Modernity from Princeton University. Currently, Alysa is directing two films about influential artists, producing a documentary about mobile home parks and the affordable housing crisis, executive producing another documentary about Afghan cinema during the communist era, and developing a limited series.Eva Vives
Eva Vives is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. In 2000, she won the Best Short Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Cannes Film Festival with Five Feet High and Rising, a short she cast, edited and produced. She followed that up with the feature Raising Victor Vargas, which she co-wrote. Vives wrote and directed her short film Join the Club, which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2016, and played in many other festivals. She was also a finalist for the 2016 Atlanta Film Festival Filmmaker to Watch. Her auto-biographical directorial debut All About Nina, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Common, opened in theaters September 2018.
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5 Indie Films Win $100,000 in Fall 2018 SFFILM Westridge Grants
Five filmmaking teams were granted funding in the Fall 2018 round of SFFILM Westridge Grants, to help support the screenwriting and project development stages of their narrative feature films. SFFILM Westridge Grants, which are awarded twice annually, are designed for US-based filmmakers whose stories take place primarily in the United States and focus on the significant social issues and questions of our time. The next application period will open later this month.
SFFILM Westridge Grants provide support to film projects in their critical early stages, safeguarding filmmakers’ creative processes and allowing artists to concentrate on thoughtfully developing their stories while building the right strategy and infrastructure to guide them through financing and production. In addition to cash grants, recipients will benefit from SFFILM’s comprehensive and dynamic artist development program, SFFILM Makers, as well as support and counsel from SFFILM and Westridge Foundation staff.
The panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions were Lauren Kushner, SFFILM Senior Manager of Artist Development; Alana Mayo, Head of Production at Outlier Society; Shelby Rachleff, Westridge Foundation Program Manager; Shira Rockowitz, Associate Director, Feature Film Program, Sundance; Jenny Slattery, SFFILM Associate Director of Artist Development and Foundations; and Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM Director of Artist Development.
In a statement, the panelists said, “We are delighted to support these five outstanding projects—each of the filmmakers has the boldness and originality to make a world visceral and vivid, whether it’s a freezing village in northern Alaska or a megachurch hell house in Texas. But they also have the sensitivity to lay bare the deeply personal experiences of the characters who move through those worlds, shouldering their burdens and reaching out for each other despite them.”
FALL 2018 SFFILM WESTRIDGE GRANT WINNERS
Captain C! John Paul Su, writer/director – screenwriting – $20,000 Caleb Diaz is an eleven-year-old Filipino-American queer comic book fanboy who lives in a diverse working-class neighborhood in American suburbia. After saving his classmate from a group of bullies, he is wrongfully accused of stabbing that same classmate. With the impending threat of expulsion, he struggles to prove his innocence, and fulfill his dream of becoming his family’s ultimate superhero. Invoking Juan Angel Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, writer/director – screenwriting – $20,000 Mexican immigrant Magdalena Cruz is hired as the live-in caretaker for Ian, a severely ill child whose forced isolation has created budding psychic abilities and a fascination for the paranormal. But unbeknownst to Ian’s overprotective father, the distressed Magdalena has a child of her own hidden in the basement bedroom. After the two boys share an unexpected encounter, Ian is convinced the mysterious child must be a ghost and seeks to unravel his tragic story. Placas Paul S. Flores, writer; Tashana Landray, producer – screenwriting – $20,000 Sixteen-year-old Edgar wants nothing to do with his father, former gang member Fausto (known as “Placas” for his many tattoos). Placas wants what every father wants: to provide a better life for his son. As Placas strives to put his past behind him, going through tattoo removal and therapy, Edgar is recruited by a rival gang. As Placas’ past and Edgar’s future collide, they both face choices that will change the course of their lives. Qimmit Andrew Okpeaha MacLean, writer/director; Cara Marcous, producer – screenwriting – $20,000 Inspired by true events, Qimmit tells the story of Suvlu, an Iñupiaq hunter who is forced to make a monstrous decision for the survival of his family. Righteous Acts Alicia D. Ortega, writer – screenwriting – $20,000 Homeschooled teenager Judith thinks she’s finally found her people when she joins the cast of a megachurch “hell house,” where evangelical teens aim to scare people into salvation. But when she doesn’t land the coveted role of the Abortion Girl, she convinces herself she’s the only player doing God’s work and that it’s her holy duty to expose the true wages of sin.