Filmmaking

15 Rising Filmmakers Win 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellowships

From a broad global pool of more than 1,200 applicants, Sundance Institute and Adobe selected fifteen 18-to-24-year-old filmmakers from three continents for the one-year 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellowship. For the fourth year, fellows were selected based on their one- to eight-minute original films, submitted through Adobe Project 1324, Adobe’s platform for young creators, along with their written applications. The finalists were selected based on their original voice, diverse storytelling and rigor in their filmmaking pursuits. In addition to their trip to the Festival, Sundance Ignite fellows are paired with a Sundance Institute alumni professional for a full year of guidance and development, gaining industry exposure and meaningful mentorship. This year’s new Sundance Ignite mentors include Heather Rae (Tallulah), Dee Rees (Mudbound) and Andrew Ahn (Spa Night). In addition to a personalized Festival experience and mentorship track, Sundance Ignite fellows gain unique access to workshops, internships, and work opportunities at Sundance Institute’s renowned Labs and artists programs supported by Adobe Project 1324. With Sundance Ignite as their launchpad, past fellows have springboarded into opportunities on the festival circuit, graduate film programs and beyond. Past Sundance Ignite Fellows include Sindha Agha, whose Sundance Ignite Short Film Challenge submission Birth Control Your Own Adventure was picked up by the New York Times’ Op-Docs and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival; Charlotte Regan, who premiered her film Fry Up at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival; Emily Ann Hoffmann who also premiered her film Nevada at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and Gerardo Coello who participated in the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Summit in 2018.
2019 Sundance Ignite Fellows
Daniel Antebi Daniel Antebi began art doing magic at the age of five. Yes, ‘Is this your card?’ kind of magic. He’s racialized as white and categorized as a cisgender-heterosexual male. However, he’s a Queer-Mexican-Jew whose normative appearance is deceiving. In his work, he hopes to reconcile opposing realities. Daniel makes films, dabbles in poetry and sculpture, but if you ask him, he’s still a magician. Naëmi Buchtemann Naëmi is studying Film Directing at the German Film and Television Academy of Berlin and working as an assistant director. She holds a Bachelors of Performing Arts from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, United Kingdom. Luna Carmoon Luna Carmoon is an SE, London-based filmmaker whose first short film “NOSEBLEED” premiered at the BFI London Film Festival this year also selected to be part of the LFF Network programme this year too. A self-taught writer-director, Luna was one of six filmmakers selected to make a film as part of the “ShortFLIX” initiative searching for underrepresented talent in the UK run by “Creative England” in partnership with “NYT” and “Sky Arts”. Her work is strange and surreal at times. Maya Cueva Maya Cueva is an award-winning multimedia producer, specializing in directing and audio producing for documentary films and radio. Her work has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered, Latino USA, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Cosmopolitan, and NBC’s Nightly News. Maya was awarded an Emmy from the College Television Awards and her films have screened internationally and across the U.S. She is also a Valentine & Clark Emerging Artist Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center. Kira Dane Kira Dane is a half-Japanese filmmaker, painter, and native New Yorker. She graduated New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in filmmaking. After graduating from NYU, Kira worked as an associate producer on Humans of New York: The Series, which was nominated for an Emmy award. She is currently an active member of the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective. Embracing sincerity over irony, Kira sets out to tell unexpected and nuanced stories. Aaron Dunleavy Aaron Dunleavy is a filmmaker from Blackburn. His debut student short, Throw Me to the Dogs, won 10 awards on the festival circuit, screening at some of the most prestigious BAFTA and Oscar® qualifying festivals around the world. Aaron’s films explore stories of working class youth; with unscripted and improvised performances, street casting and non-professional young actors at the core of his filmmaking approach. Emily Gularte Emily Gularte is a Guatemalan writer and director. She is a film student at Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala. She has been the director and screenwriter of many short films, educational films, as well as commercials and music videos. She was a head writer on a children’s animated web series and was the director of the show’s voice-actors. Additionally, she has produced several videos for the Oslo Freedom Forum run by the Human Rights Foundation. Yusuf Kapadia A recent NYU Tisch graduate, Yusuf Kapadia is a skilled filmmaker forging a career in documentary. He is currently an Assistant Editor on Stanley Nelson’s Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (w.t.), and in post-production on his own film, a portrait of a family supporting their child on the autism spectrum. An avid cyclist, Yusuf spent his college years racing with the NYU cycling team. He enjoys riding mountain or road whenever he can. Kerry LeVielle Kerry LeVielle is a Hudson Valley based filmmaker. Her work explores the experience of women and the nuanced intimacy of their impassioned journeys to “come of age.” Kerry graduated from SUNY Purchase College in 2017. After graduating, she was a recipient of the Fall 2017 Valentine and Clark Emerging Artist Fellowship in the Creative Culture Fellowship Program at the Jacob Burns Film Center where she directed two short films, Niskyland and Playhouse. Rachael Moton Rachael Moton is a Philadelphia based writer and director. She attended Temple University where she graduated with a degree in Film and Media Arts. She is passionate about telling stories that center on women and people of color and wants to create work that promotes empathy. She currently works at a non-profit, The Creative Mind Group, as an administrative manager and program director. Lance Oppenheim Lance is a filmmaker whose work has been screened at over 65 film festivals, including the Tribeca Film Festival, and featured by The New York Times (as three Op-Docs), the Smithsonian, The Atlantic, Vimeo (as five Staff Picks), Short of the Week, and PBS national broadcast. He received two nominations at the 2017 Cannes Young Director’s Award and is the youngest contributor to the New York Times Op-Docs. Lance attends Harvard University and is currently in post-production on his first feature-length documentary. Frida Perez Frida Pérez is a Dominican-American filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She’s a recent graduate of Brown University with an Honors Degree in Modern Culture and Media (Production Track) and Political Science. Frida currently works as an assistant at Point Grey Pictures. She previously worked at UTA and has held internships at Comedy Central, Women Make Movies, William Morris Endeavor, Pretty Matches Productions, in addition to working as an AC, AD, and PA on several independent shorts. Eli Salameh Eli Salameh is a film director born in Lebanon. He graduated with Honors from the Lebanese University Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture II in 2018 with a Master’s degree in Film Directing. He is now a Masters student in cinematography. His short academic films are “FLY MY LOVE,” “ARYAN” and “THE BOY WHO WORE THE SUN.” “EXIT BEIRUT” is his recent short film submitted to the Sundance Ignite Film Challenge. Cai Thomas Cai Thomas is a Liberty City native whose curiosity was born and nurtured in the “Moonlight” neighborhood. She’s a Chicago based filmmaker interested in stories at the intersection of identity, self-determination and location. She is a NextDoc 2018 Fellow and was a Berlin Capital Fulbright awardee in 2017. She spent two seasons as a production associate on CBS Sunday Morning. A graduate of Boston College, she was a Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholar. Aziz Zoromba Aziz Zoromba is a Canadian filmmaker of Egyptian descent. He is currently finishing his BFA at the Mel Hoppenheim Film School. His first short film, Leila (2017), which he wrote and directed, was selected and presented at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of Canada’s Top 10. His most recent short film, Amal (2018), premiered at the Festival du nouveau cinéma in October. Image: Top, L-R: Daniel Antebi, Naëmi Buchtemann, Luna Carmoon, Maya Cueva, Kira Dane. Middle, L-R: Aaron Dunleavy, Emily Gularte, Yusuf Kapadia, Kerry LeVielle, Rachael Moton. Bottom, L-R: Lance Oppenheim, Frida Perez, Eli Salameh, Cai Thomas, Aziz Zoromba.
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33 Documentaries Win Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and Stories of Change Grant

Thirty-three nonfiction works from seventeen countries comprise the latest Sundance Institute Documentary Fund and Stories of Change Grantees. 81% of the supported projects have at least one woman producer or director; 48% originate from outside the US. That support takes the form of grants to films in the development, production, post-production and audience engagement stages, and includes custom grants from The Kendeda Fund, which provides specific support for projects addressing environmental themes or the challenges of gun violence; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which provides specific support for journalistic projects, prioritizing diverse, Native and Indigenous voices; and the Stories of Change Fund, a creative partnership with the Skoll Foundation, which supports social entrepreneurs and independent storytellers. This slate of Institute grantees join those supported by Science Sandbox, a collaboration with the Simons Foundation, and the Art of Nonfiction Fellowship and Fund, announced last month. “From renowned Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel addressing the legacy of 500 years of colonial history in her first feature documentary, to first-time Chinese director Runze Yu exploring a profoundly intimate domestic space, these are the vivid individual threads that form the narrative tapestry of our culture and we are proud to support them.” said Tabitha Jackson, the Documentary Film Program’s Director. “These wildly diverse projects from around the globe encompass a staggering scope of subjects,” said Hajnal Molnar-Szakacs, the Documentary Fund’s Director. “We are thrilled that our grants and tailored support opportunities can play a catalytic role across the lives of these projects, from developing creative languages to securing additional funding and finally launching the films on the world stage.” Sundance Institute has a long history and firm commitment to championing the most distinctive nonfiction films from around the world. Recently-supported films include Shirkers, Hale County This Morning, This Evening; Minding the Gap; The Silence of Others; I Am Not Your Negro; Last Men in Aleppo; Casting JonBenet; Strong Island; Hooligan Sparrow.
Sundance Institute Documentary Fund Grantees

DEVELOPMENT
Chocobar (Argentina / US) Dir. Lucrecia Martel Prod. Benjamin Domenech, Joslyn Barnes, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda Javier Chocobar was shot dead fighting the removal of his indigenous community from their ancestral land in Argentina. His death appeared in a video on YouTube. This film unravels the 500 years of “reason” that led to this shooting, both with a gun and a camera, and contextualizes it in the system of land tenure that emerged across Latin America. Cowboy Love (Argentina / Mexico) Dir. Manuel Abramovich Prod. Manuel Abramovich A gay cowboy community in Mexico reinvents the classical heteronormative cowboy figure. Like a documentary remake of ‘Brokeback Mountain’ with the tone of Mexican telenovela, ‘Amor vaquero’ is the movie these cowboys always wanted but never had: the one about their own love stories. Democrats II (Denmark) Dir. Camilla Nielsson Prod. Signe Byrge Sørensen Zimbabwe is at a crossroads. The new leader of the opposition party, MDC, Nelson Chamisa, challenges the old guard, ZANU-PF, represented by the acting president Emmerson Mnangagwa, also known as ‘the crocodile’. The election is the ultimate test for both the party in power and of the opposition. How do they interpret the principles of democracy in a post-Mugabe era – in discourse and in practice? Untitled Dystopia Film (US / UK) Dir. Malika Zouhali-Worrall Caught in a modern day dystopia, a novelist uses fiction to examine the very real brutality and absurdity of authoritarian rule. Gabi (Sweden) Dir. Engeli Broberg Prod. Anna J. Ljungmark and Jacob Eklund Gabi just wants to be Gabi. A simple wish one would think, but as it turns out, it is not. Showing the perspective of a child that refuses to be put in a box, we follow Gabi from age eight to thirteen, struggling to find a place in a society dictated by adult rules and gender categorizations. Mayor (US) Dir. David Osit Prod. David Osit With startling and unprecedented access, Mayor follows a charismatic leader’s quixotic quest to build the city of the future in a land paralyzed by its past. My Mom and My Little Secret (China) Dir. Runze Yu Prod. Runze Yu This film is an intimate portrait of the relationship between the closeted filmmaker himself and his estranged mother. In a fast-changing society like China, where traditional values collide with the new ones. Will revealing the secret bring the family together or rip it apart? Until I Find You (Mexico / France) Dir. Ludovic Bonleux Prod. Ludovic Bonleux and Sonia Paramo Until I Find You tells the story of Ana, a Honduran mother in search of her son, who disappeared in Mexico on his way to the United States.
PRODUCTION
Alabamaland (US) Dir. April Dobbins Prod. April Dobbins, Moira Griffin, Trevite Willis Jones Farm is a lush, 688-acre farm situated in the heart of western Alabama. Three generations of black women explore their very different ties to this place that shaped them and continues to exert a strange hold on their identities. This is the same plot of land that their ancestors once worked as slaves—a history that is important to their identities and to how they navigate the world. Aleph (US / Croatia) Dir. Iva Radivojevic Prod. Madeleine Molyneaux, Vilka Alfier, Iva Radivojevic Aleph is a mysterious portal that contains the entire universe. The portal is hidden in a splintered labyrinth of magic and meaning and encompasses the thoughts, ideas and dreams of ten protagonists in ten countries, spanning five continents. These collective stories serve as pieces of a puzzle that lead to what the writer Jorge Luis Borges called “the unimaginable universe.” The Fight (Bolivia & Australia) Dir. Violeta Ayala Prod. Redelia Shaw, Daniel Fallshaw, Fernando Barbosa, Andrea Monasterios People with disabilities are amongst the most discriminated in Bolivia, with the majority living in dire poverty. Fed up with being ignored, a group of them decide to take their fight to the streets; Feliza and her husband Marcelo lead the way, as the protest grows into a movement. They embark on an unimaginable journey, marching 260 miles over the Andean mountains in their wheelchairs to go toe-to-toe with the Bolivian government. Heaven Through the Backdoor (US) Dir. Anna Fitch and Banker White Prod. Sara Dosa Heaven Through the Backdoor is a multi-platform documentary that explores identity, judgement and family bonds through the experience of Swiss émigré Yo (Yolanda Shae), a fiercely independent 88-year old woman who we meet as she prepares for her next great adventure: death. The project juxtaposes cinematic interpretations of Yo’s stories using intricately built sets and miniatures,with raw, intimate documentary footage her present life. Just a Band (Kenya / Canada) Dir. Anjali Nayar, Wanuri Kahiu Prod. Katie Doering, Senain Kheshgi Just a Band is a story about four nerdy Nairobians, who drop out of university and form an Afro-electric pop band, a counter narrative to the lives expected of them by their middle-class families. Playing on popular band movie tropes (the story of every great band that’s ever broken up), while borrowing from a post-modern cultural mishmash of Sun Ra, Kung Fu Movies, Hip Hop and a thousand other bits of detritus, the film Just a Band presents a fresh coming-of-age story in the midst of the post-dictatorship art renaissance in Kenya. Outta The Muck (US) Dir. Ira McKinley & Bhawin Suchak Prod. Tracy Rector, Bhawin Suchak, Ira McKinley, Sam Pollard Family, football, and the forgotten history of the Deep South come to life in this intimate portrait of generational struggle and resilience in Pahokee, Florida. Outta The Muck tells a story about the power of community, the echoes of trauma, and the strength of Black families in rural America. Softie (Kenya) Dir. Sam Soko Prd. Toni Kamau and Sam Soko A young idealistic Kenyan challenges the status quo, facing questions on the cost of sacrifices made, past and present. Through the Night (US) Dir. Loira Limbal Prod. Loira Limbal To make ends meet, Americans are working longer hours across multiple jobs. This modern reality of non-stop work has resulted in an unexpected phenomenon: the flourishing of 24-hour daycare centers. Through the Night is a vérité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories two working mothers and a childcare provider – whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.
POST-PRODUCTION
Advocate (Israel / Canada / Switzerland) Dir. Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche Prod. Philippe Bellaiche, Rachel Leah Jones, Paul Cadieux, Joelle Bertossa Lea Tsemel defends Palestinians: from feminists to fundamentalists, from non-violent demonstrators to armed militants. As a Jewish-Israeli lawyer who has represented political prisoners for nearly 50 years, Tsemel, in her tireless quest for justice, pushes the praxis of a human rights defender to its limits. Born in China (US / China) Directors: Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang Prod. Julie Goldman, Chris Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, Christoph Jorg First-time mother and filmmaker Nanfu Wang uncovers the untold history of China’s One-Child policy and the generations of parents and children forever shaped by this social experiment. The Last Out (US) Dir. Sami Khan and Michael Gassert Prod. Michael Gassert, Jonathan Miller, Sami Khan Three young Cuban baseball players are pushed to their limits as they flee their homeland, leaving their families and everything they’ve ever known behind, to chase their dreams of playing in the Major Leagues. The Letter (Kenya) Dir. Maia Lekow and Chris King Prod. Maia Lekow and Chris King In coastal Kenya, a frenzied mix of consumerism & christianity is turning hundreds of families against their elders, branding them as witches as a means to steal their land. Filmed with a gentle pace and incredible closeness, The Letter is an intimate family portrait that weaves a complex story of shakespearean proportions. The Kendeda Fund Provides specific support for projects addressing environmental themes or the challenges of gun violence
AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT
Charm City (US) Dir. Marilyn Ness Prod. Katy Chevigny Charm City delivers a candid portrait of citizens, police, community advocates, and government officials on the frontlines during three years of unparalleled, escalating violence in Baltimore. The film highlights the positive actions undertaken by groups and individuals, optimistically offering humanity as common ground. Harvest Season (US) Dir. Bernardo Ruiz Prod. Bernardo Ruiz and Lauren Capps Rosenfeld Like studio musicians or backup singers, the behind-the-scenes players in the premium California wine industry are essential, yet rarely recognized for their efforts or contributions. Following three people whose lives and livelihoods are intimately tied to winemaking in the Napa and Sonoma Valleys, Harvest Season delves into the “backstage” action over the course of one dramatic grape harvest and during a period of of rapid change for the California wine industry. Inventing Tomorrow (US) Dir. Laura Nix Prod. Diane Becker, Melanie Miller, Laura Nix Meet passionate teenage innovators from around the globe who are creating cutting-edge solutions to confront the world’s environmental threats – found right in their own backyards – while navigating the doubts and insecurities that mark adolescence. Take a journey with these inspiring teens as they prepare their projects for the largest convening of high school scientists in the world, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), a program of the Society for Science & the Public.
PRODUCTION
As Goes Parkland… (US) Dir. Kim A Snyder Prod. Lori Cheatle, Maria Cuomo Cole, Kim A. Snyder In the wake of the February 14, 2018 school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida–the worst school shooting since Newtown–Parkland students ignite the largest student movement since the 1960s to address gun violence in America and demand change. Hollow Tree (US) Dir. Kira Akerman Prod. Monique Walton Three teenagers come of age in Southeast Louisiana’s fragile delta; a parable for climate adaptation. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Provides support for journalistic projects, prioritizing diverse, Native and Indigenous voices
PRODUCTION
And She Could Be Next (US) Dir. Grace Lee, Marjan Safinia, Yoruba Richen, Amber Fares, Deb Esquenazi, Geeta Gandbhir. Anayansi Prado, Ramona Emerson Prod. Grace Lee, Marjan Safinia, Jyoti Sarda In a polarized America, where the dual forces of white supremacy and patriarchy threaten to further erode democracy, women of color are claiming power by running for political office. And She Could be Next, made by a team of women filmmakers of color, asks whether democracy itself can be preserved — and made stronger — by those most marginalized. Untitled Puerto Rico Documentary (US) Dir. Cecilia Aldarondo Prod. Cecilia Aldarondo, Ines Hofmann Kanna A kaleidoscopic portrait of the aftermath of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico. Untitled Race & Criminal Justice Project (US) Dir. Ursula Liang Prod. Rajal Pitroda & Chanelle Aponte Pearson A nuanced look at how two communities of color navigate an uneven criminal justice system, anchored by one polarizing New York City case. Stories of Change Fund A creative partnership with the Skoll Foundation, which supports social entrepreneurs and independent storytellers. Untitled Water Inequality in Kenya Project (Kenya), scripted short Dir. Judy Kibinge Prod. Emily Wanja A young women working as a house help in a middle class home in Kenya discovers that her affluent employers are paying less for water than she and her community do. She soon discovers the source of the problem is far closer to home. First Time Stories (India), feature documentary Directors: Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya Deep inside the Amazon, rainforests flourish untouched from horizon to horizon, guarded by mountains never climbed, and cut by rivers unmapped. And yet, they have all been claimed by stories told by elders around a fire. Keepers of the oral storytelling tradition in Suriname for 300 years, frail Matawai elders seek to pass them to the young, who are lured away by gold mining, far from the secrets of the forest. Mystery of Epilogue (Denmark/Syria), feature documentary Dir. Feras Fayyad Prod. Kirstine Barfod In the chaotic war-torn world of Syria, three lawyers and judges attempt to re-establish the rule of law amid the collapse of the justice in the ongoing civil war. Untitled Government Technology Project (US) Prod. Kate Osborn, Josh Penn, Elizabeth Lodge Stepp A comprehensive look at our nation’s contemporary infrastructure that matters most: technology. Examining how government works in this digital age, largely at the expense of the American people. The Widow Champion (US), short documentary Dir. Heather Courtney Evicted from their land and homes by their in-laws, widows in Kenya are forced to live destitute with their children in empty market stalls, or even under trees out in the open. But now these women are coming together to fight for what is rightfully theirs — their land, their homes and their lives.
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Rammy Park’s “Monitor City” Wins Rhode Island International Film Festival Screenplay Competition

[caption id="attachment_32459" align="aligncenter" width="960"] Shawn Quirk, RIIFF Program Director (l) with Dr. Nancy Carriuolo and Lukas Hassel, previous Grand Prize Winner for Best Screenplay.[/caption] Rammy Park from Brooklyn, NY is the Best Screenplay Grand Prize Winner for this year’s 2018 Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) Screenplay Competition. Rammy’s winning screenplay is entitled “Monitor City.” The “Monitor City” storyline: A Greek tragedy in a futuristic sci-fi setting, “Monitor City” pits reluctant hero Olivia Andressa against a totalitarian system of control and surveillance, as she struggles to accept her role in the City’s resistance movement and to bring her fractured family back together “Rammy Park’s script breathes new life into the dystopian genre. The script is a defining work, that is teeming with social commentary. Rammy has successfully created a tragic futurist tale that serves as a timely parable for today’s ever growing dependence on technology and surveillance,” said Shawn Quirk, RIIFF Program Director. “What an amazing year for storytelling and our screenplay competition. This year’s entries were inventive and re-defining. They were scored on criteria that included character, dialogue, setting, plot, structure and technique,” added Quirk. “We reviewed the largest entry base in competition’s history making for difficult decision-making on the part of our international group of judges. “After extensive and careful deliberation, prize winners were chosen in seven distinct categories: Best Screenplay, Best International, Vortex Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror, Best LGBTQ, Spotlight on New England, Best Short Screenplay and Best Television Pilot,” Quirk noted.
2018Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) Screenplay Competition Prize Winners

BEST SCREENPLAY
GRAND PRIZE: “Monitor City” |Rammy Park, Author | Brooklyn, NY FIRST PLACE: “Hinterland”| S.J. Main Muñoz, Author | Venice, CA
INTERNATIONAL SCREENPLAY
GRAND PRIZE: “Sound of the Somme” | Written by: Alexander Menu & Thomas Besançon, Authors | Belgium FIRST PRIZE: “White Whale”| Rustem Samigullin, Author | Homberg, Germany
VORTEX HORROR/SCI-FI SCREENPLAY
GRAND PRIZE: “Blank Shores” | Alex Kyrou, Author | London, United Kingdom FIRST PRIZE: “Silence” | Collin Kornfeind, Author | Astoria, NY
JAMES L. SEAVOR LGBTQ SCREENPLAY
GRAND PRIZE: “Liza Herself” | Joan Kelly, Author | Somerville, MA FIRST PRIZE: “Chasing The Dragon”| Eduardo Ayres Soares, Author | Porto Alegre, Brazil
RI SPOTLIGHT ON NEW ENGLAND
GRAND PRIZE: “Oil and Water” | Alfred Thomas Catalfo, Author | Dover, NH FIRST PRIZE: “Blood and Plunder” | Adam Olenn, Author | Providence, RI
BEST TELEVISION PILOT SCRIPT
GRAND PRIZE: “The Reservoir” | Dylan Allen, Author | Brooklyn, NY FIRST PRIZE: “Matched”| Tess Allen, Author | Playa Vista, CA
BEST SHORT SCRIPT
GRAND PRIZE: “Red Shirt” | Mary C. Ferrara, Author | Quincy, MA FIRST PRIZE: “Last Day of School”| Gypsy Nelson | Mason, WI Photo by Mike Braca via RIIF
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5 Film Projects Selected for 4th THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program

Tribeca and CHANEL continue to provide extraordinary opportunities to propel women filmmakers forward with the fourth annual THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program. The mentorship program was created to provide a balance of industry support, artistic development, and funding for new and emerging U.S.-based female writers and directors of short-form narrative films. Presented by Tribeca and CHANEL, in collaboration with Pulse Films, and facilitated by Tribeca Film InstituteÒ (TFI), the multi-faceted program has selected five short film projects from women storytellers to receive project support, and take part in one-on-one mentorship and master classes over a three day immersive program. On the final day, each of the five filmmaker pairs will pitch their projects to a jury of industry experts. One filmmaker will be awarded full financing to produce their short film, along with support from Tribeca Studios to make the project. The four other projects will each be awarded grant funds to continue developing their films. From October 16-18, the filmmakers will gather in New York City with the mentor and program advisors for an in-depth intimate program concentrating on script-to-screen development, casting, finding collaborators, and working with cinematographers, music composers, costume designers, and producers. The selected program participants will attend master classes and have individual mentoring sessions with leading women in filmmaking, meet distributors, and spend concentrated time refining their pitching skills. During the summer, each filmmaker was given the opportunity to work with writing mentors to shape and refine her project. “In the years since Tribeca launched Through Her Lens with CHANEL, the program has created invaluable opportunities for the next generation of women storytellers,” said Paula Weinstein, EVP of Tribeca Enterprises. “The program brings established women filmmakers together to mentor these emerging voices, provide hands-on guidance and feedback, as well as fund their projects. We’re proud to help expand the pipeline for great inclusive storytelling.” “TFI’s (Tribeca Film Institute) mission is to join with filmmakers in breaking barriers to access, exposure, and sustainability in the media landscape. The Tribeca Chanel program unequivocally aligns with our nonprofit’s goals to provide this level of meaningful support to women filmmakers of all kinds,” said Amy Hobby, Executive Director, Tribeca Film Institute. The Leadership Committee participating in the program are: MASTER CLASS ADVISORS: Costume designer Stacey Battat (The Beguiled, Still Alice), casting director Ellen Chenoweth (The Goldfinch, No Country For Old Men), writer/director Debra Granik (Leave No Trace, Winter’s Bone), composer Laura Karpman (Paris Can Wait, Underground), and cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Black Panther, Mudbound). JURORS: Producer Effie T. Brown (FOX’s “Star,” Dear White People, “Project Greenlight”), actor/writer/director/producer Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture, “Camping,” “Girls”), cinematographer Rachel Morrison (Black Panther, Mudbound), and producer Paula Weinstein (“Grace and Frankie,” The Perfect Storm, Recount). MENTORS: Director/producer Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty), actor/director/producer Courteney Cox (“Cougar Town,” “Friends”), producer and TFI Executive Director Amy Hobby (What Happened, Miss Simone?, Secretary), writer/director Stella Meghie (Everything, Everything, The Weekend), writer/director/executive producer Veena Sud (“The Killing,” “Seven Seconds”), and producer Christine Vachon (Carol, Far from Heaven). WRITING MENTORS: Producer Stephanie Allain (Beyond the Lights, Dear White People), writer/executive producer Janine Sherman Barrois (“Claws,” “Criminal Minds”), writer/director Susanna Fogel (The Spy Who Dumped Me, Life Partners), writer Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married, Untitled Monsters Franchise for Universal Studios), and writer/executive producer Marti Noxon (“Sharp Objects,” “UnREAL”). The selected projects and filmmakers are: H-E-A-T-H-E-R: Heather, a young, racially ambiguous artist, confronts questions of identity when she becomes a part-time babysitter for 11-year-old Jayda. Their dynamic prompts Heather to explore the limitations of her persona as she voyages into other realms of her imagination through fantasy, alternate realities, and moving collages. Francesca Mirabella (Co-Writer, Co-Director) Francesca Mirabella is a writer and director who received her MFA from the NYU Tisch Graduate Film program, where she attended as a Dean’s Fellow. Her shorts have screened at a range of festivals and were most recently featured at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2017, Mirabella won an NYU Wasserman Award for Best Screenplay. A 2017/18 Marcie Bloom Fellow, Mirabella is currently developing her feature Modern Love, which was awarded a Tribeca All Access® grant. Kylah Benes-Trapp (Co-Writer, Co-Director) Kylah Benes-Trapp is a visual artist from California currently based in New York City. She works primarily in digital illustration, photography and graphic design and has recently started writing for film. Her work explores ideas of self-expression, femininity, identity and nostalgia. Her purpose is to create a world of possibility through her work that will inspire discovery. LIFE ON MARS: Six aspiring astronauts are sealed inside a solar-powered dome, attempting to simulate life on Mars. When Dana’s helmet malfunctions on the first spacewalk — depriving her of precious oxygen — she and her teammates have a critical decision to make. Laramie Dennis (Writer, Director) Laramie Dennis attended Wesleyan University and spent 10 years in New York City developing and directing new plays before earning her MFA in Film and Television Production from USC. Her short films have screened at the Vancouver International Film Festival and Short Film Corner at Cannes and have also been presented and distributed by Boyish, Shorts International and Sprint. Her short-form animated series, The Golden Rule, is currently in production. Jenna Cedicci (Producer) Jenna Cedicci is an international feature film and commercial producer. She has developed and produced more than 75 commercials and five features to date, three slated for distribution in 2019: the documentary Fire on the Hill, a remake of the classic German film Nosferatu, and the narrative indie feature Daddy Issues. ROSA: While working at her aunt’s flower shop, Rosa takes her job underground when she begins a side business of shipping undocumented bodies to their home countries for burial. Suha Araj (Writer, Director) Suha Araj creates films that explore the displacement of immigrant communities. The Cup Reader, shot in Palestine, screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and was awarded The Next Great Filmmaker Award at the Berkshire International Film Festival and Baghdad International Film Festival. Araj followed with Pioneer High in 2015. She has received support for her work from the Sundance Film Festival, TorinoFilmLab, Independent Filmmaker Project, Berlinale Talent Project Market, Center for Asian American Media and Cine Qua Non Lab. Maryam Keshavarz (Producer) Maryam Keshavarz is a writer, director and producer whose short The Day I Died won the Gold Teddy and Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival. Keshavarz’s first feature, Circumstance, won the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award and was distributed theatrically by Participant Media and Roadside Attractions. Her sophomore feature — Viper Club, starring Susan Sarandon — world premiered at Toronto International Film Festival and hits theaters this month. EL TIMBRE DE SU VOZ: Yaneris, a Dominican teenager, plots a way to escape her hometown of Sosúa, where becoming an escort seems to be her only fate. After unexpectedly falling in love with her client’s son, she decides he may be the ticket to a new life — for both her and her disabled sister. Gabriella Moses (Writer, Director) Gabriella Moses is director, writer, and production designer based in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She has received support for her work through the New York Women in Film & Television’s 2017 From Script to Pre-Production Workshop, Sundance Institute’s 2018 Screenwriters Intensive and 2018 TFI Network. Moses believes in sharing stories with underrepresented protagonists that push viewers’ perceptions of identity and imagination. Shruti Ganguly (Producer) Shruti Ganguly is a filmmaker and the founder of honto88. She has directed numerous videos and is a recovering media executive, with roles at MTV, Condé Nast/Vogue and more recently at NYLON as the Vice President of TV & Video. Her films have been screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and AFI Fest. Ganguly hails from India by way of Oman. WHAT IS YOUR SOUL PURPOSE?: A sheltered Korean American family travels to Atlanta to retrieve the body of their son after he passes away from an accidental overdose. In the depths of their grief, they find an unlikely connection and momentary solace with the African American family who owns the mortuary. Jennifer Cho Suhr (Writer/Director) Jennifer Cho Suhr is a Brooklyn-based writer and director. She is developing her debut feature, You and Me Both, starring Constance Wu and selected for the Tribeca All Access® and Film Independent’s Producing Lab and Fast Track programs. Suhr earned her MFA from the NYU Tisch Graduate Film program, where she was awarded the Tisch Fellowship and a grant from the Spike Lee Film Production Fund. Carolyn Mao (Producer) Carolyn Mao is a Los Angeles-based producer and former development executive. Nice, a pilot she produced by creator Naomi Ko and director by Andrew Ahn, premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. She is currently raising financing for You and Me Both. She is a fellow of Film Independent’s Project Involve, Producing Lab and Fast Track programs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud3__BbTr8g CHANEL and Tribeca work year-round to support women filmmakers, not only with THROUGH HER LENS, but during the annual Tribeca Film Festival with the annual women’s filmmaking lunch and the Nora Ephron Award. The Award was created in 2013 to honor exceptional female filmmakers who embody the spirit and vision of the legendary filmmaker. Women who have received the award include: Meera Menon (Farah Goes Bang, Equity), Talya Lavie (Zero Motivation), Laura Bispuri (Sworn Virgin), Rachel Tunnard (Adult Life Skills), Petra Volpe (The Divine Order), and Nia DaCosta (Little Woods) from this past year. The 2016 recipient of the THROUGH HER LENS grant, Feathers, directed by A.V. Rockwell, premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Fox Searchlight. Last year’s main recipient, Suicide by Sunlight, by Nikyatu Jusu is currently in post-production. Tribeca actively cultivates independent voices in storytelling and has been at the forefront of supporting women filmmakers. This past year, it led the way as the first major film festival to have near equal representation by women directors in its feature film program. THROUGH HER LENS: The Tribeca Chanel Women’s Filmmaker Program—the most recent iteration of Tribeca’s commitment to female artistic voices—continues to provide resources to help empower emerging women storytellers in the industry. The nonprofit affiliate of Tribeca, Tribeca Film Institute, supports female filmmakers through, among other initiatives, its cornerstone grant and mentorship program, Tribeca All AccessÒ. Currently in its 16th year, the program supports scripted, documentary and interactive storytellers from diverse communities, including those that are statistically underrepresented in the industry. Image: (top row: l to r) Carolyn Mao, Francesca Mirabella, Gabriella Moses, Jenna Cedicci, Shruti Ganguly (bottom row: l to r) Maryam Keshavarz, Laramie Dennis, Kylah Benes-Trapp, Jennifer Cho Suhr, Suha Araj
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Five Documentary Film Projects Win 2018 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Awards Totaling $125,000

[caption id="attachment_31597" align="aligncenter" width="960"] In Real Life – Liza Mandelup[/caption] SFFILM on Friday announced the five winners of the 2018 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund awards totaling $125,000, which support feature-length documentaries in post-production. Jennifer Maytorena Taylor’s The Gut (working title), Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska’s Honeyland, Liza Mandelup’s In Real Life, Hassan Fazili’s Midnight Traveler, and Jessica Kingdon’s Untitled PRC Project, were each awarded funding that will help push each project towards completion. The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has a track record for championing important films that in recent years, left a mark on the festival circuit and beyond. Previous winners include RaMell Ross’ Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, which won a Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival; Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for documentary and SFFILM Festival’s McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award, before being released theatrically by Kino Lorber; Peter Bratt’s Dolores, which won the 2017 SFFILM Festival Audience Award for Documentary Feature following its Sundance premiere; 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; among many others. Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed more than $750,000 to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2018 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to support from Jennifer Battat and the Jenerosity Foundation.
2018 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS
The Gut (working title) – Jennifer Maytorena Taylor, director/producer; Jim Sabataso and Asma Bseiso, producers; Jen Bradwell and Youssif Salah, editors – $25,000 Filmed over two years in a small New England community that is struggling to emerge from the opioid epidemic and finds itself caught up in a battle over Syrian refugee resettlement, The Gut closely follows the lives of several intersecting but very different characters to explore what changes — and what doesn’t — when white, rural Americans see themselves in “the other.” Honeyland – Ljubo Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska, co-directors; Atanas Georgiev, producer/editor – $25,000 The last female bee hunter in Europe struggles to save the bees and restore the natural balance when a family of nomadic beekeepers invade her land and threaten her livelihood. Honeyland is an exploration of an observational Indigenous visual narrative that deeply impacts our behavior towards natural resources and the human condition. In Real Life – Liza Mandelup, director; Lauren Cioffi and Bert Hamelinck, producers; Alex O’Flinn, editor – $25,000 This intimate contemplation on modern youth follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester as he flirts with the world of social media fame. Driven by a wide-eyed desire for stardom, Austyn cultivates a singularly positive online persona that’s at odds with growing up in small-town Tennessee. Midnight Traveler – Hassan Fazili, director; Su Kim, producer; Emelie Mahdavian, producer/editor – $25,000 Midnight Traveler follows a family of Afghan filmmakers on the run from the Taliban. Told from refugee/director Hassan Fazili’s unique first-person perspective, this story provides unprecedented access to the complex refugee experience as it encounters the West. Untitled PRC Project – Jessica Kingdon, director; Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell, producers – $25,000 Untitled PRC Project examines megatrends of today’s China through an impressionistic collage of the new “Chinese Dream.” This observational film reveals paradoxes born from prosperity of the newest world power through the flow of production, consumption, and waste.
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So Young Shelly Yo and Erica Liu Win $35,000 2018 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellows

Two filmmakers -So Young Shelly Yo and Erica Liu have been selected by SFFILM to receive 2018 Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays. Funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships are part of the organization’s efforts to support programs that cultivate and champion films exploring scientific or technological themes and characters. SFFILM fellowships, awarded under the auspices of the organization’s artist development program, SFFILM Makers, are presented to film artists developing screenplays that tell stories related to science or technology. SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships include a $35,000 cash grant and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s suite of production offices for local and visiting independent filmmakers. Fellows will gain free office space alongside access to weekly consulting services and professional development opportunities. SFFILM will connect each fellow to a science advisor with expertise in the scientific or technological subjects at the center of their screenplays, as well as leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities. In addition to the residency and grant, SFFILM’s artist development team will facilitate industry introductions to producers and casting, financing, and creative advisors—investing in fellows from early script development stages through to release with the goal to further professional development and career sustainability. The jury noted in a statement: “We are delighted to support these two immensely talented women. Each filmmaker is taking a strikingly different approach to capturing the life of a female scientist, but they share a commitment to deepening the science in their screenplays in order to more fully realize those characters and the worlds they move in.” The 11th Endeavor So Young Shelly Yo, writer/director; Mark Castillo, producer A fiery female biotechnologist, hoping to break ground outside the realms of her lab, competes to be Korea’s first astronaut on the nationwide televised Korean Astronaut Program. In her obsessive quest to become Korea’s first astronaut, So Yeon steps into a world of unmeasurable physical and mental stress and discovers shocking revelations about her country. Based on the true story of Yi So Yeon, South Korea’s first astronaut. So Young Shelly Yo is a Korean-American filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles. She is a recent graduate of the MFA film program at Columba University, where her thesis film Moonwalk with Me was awarded faculty honors. Her short films have screened and received accolades at film festivals around the world including the Mecal Barcelona International Short Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, and New Filmmakers LA, among others. Prior to schooling, Shelly worked as a video editor for a tech company known as ZEFR and as an assistant in the freelance commercial film industry. The Mushroomers Erica Liu, writer/director; David Yu-Hao Su, producer Following her husband’s death, a young mycologist attempts to sublimate her grief by embarking on an offbeat project to heal a contaminated old-growth forest using only super fungi, but Mother Nature and the mechanics of her own mourning prove far fickler than she had anticipated. Erica Liu is a Taiwanese-American writer/director based in Los Angeles. She participated in the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women in 2015. Her films have screened at Clermont-Ferrand, AFI Fest, and Palm Springs International Shortfest, among others. Springtime aired on public television nationwide via KQED and affiliate stations. The Disappointment Tour received a Will & Jada Smith Family Foundation grant. Erica earned her MFA from NYU Tisch Asia and previously spent five years working and shooting throughout Asia, collaborating with companies including BBC, Google, and China Film Group. Erica is currently incubating her first feature, The Mushroomers.
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10 Indie Films Win Spring 2018 SFFILM Rainin Grants

[caption id="attachment_30788" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] (l to r.) Director Boots Riley and Steven Yeun on the set of SORRY TO BOTHER YOU, an Annapurna Pictures release.[/caption] Ten indie narrative films will receive a total of $250,000 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 provided by SFFILM, in partnership with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, are awarded twice annually to filmmakers whose narrative feature films will have significant economic and/or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community or meaningfully explore pressing social issues. Applications are currently being accepted for the Fall 2018 round of SFFILM Rainin Grants; the deadline to apply is August 29. For more information visit sffilm.org/makers. 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 $5 million to more than 100 projects since its inception, including Boots Riley’s indie phenomenon Sorry to Bother You, which hit theaters nationwide this month; Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Monsters and Men, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year; Geremy Jasper’s Sundance breakthrough Patti Cake$, 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 panelists who reviewed the finalists’ submissions are Noah Cowan, SFFILM Executive Director; Lauren Kushner, SFFILM Senior Manager of Artist Development; Kimberly Parker, film producer; Jennifer Rainin, CEO of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation; Jenny Slattery, SFFILM Associate Director of Foundations and Artist Development; Shelby Stone, President of Production at Freedom Road Productions; and Caroline von Kühn, SFFILM Director of Artist Development. The jury noted in a statement: “We are delighted to support these ten extraordinarily talented filmmaking teams, five of whom are filmmakers based here in the Bay Area. Each of these filmmakers is creating a rich and singular world while wrestling with essential social justice issues. We look forward to being allies and supporters to these artists as they bring this expansive range of visions to life.”
SPRING 2018 SFFILM RAININ GRANT WINNERS
Cops and Robbers Jinho “Piper” Ferreira, writer; Jason Michael Berman, producer (screenwriting) – $25,000 Frustrated with the lack of impact of his artistic efforts and haunted by the police killing of Oscar Grant, John “Jay” Punch decides to pay his own way through the police academy in an attempt to create change from the inside. He finds out very quickly that he’s in for the fight of his life, and the thing most likely to be changed is him. The Huntress Suzanne Andrews Correa, writer/director (screenwriting) – $25,000 In Ciudad Juarez, a city where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished, an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice. I’m No Longer Here Fernando Frias, writer/director; Gerardo Gatica, Gerry Kim, and Alberto Muffelmann, producers (post-production) – $40,000 After a misunderstanding with members of a local cartel, 17-year-old Ulises Samperio is forced to migrate to the US, leaving behind what defines him most: his gang and the dance parties that he loves so much. He tries to adapt to American life, but quickly realizes that he would rather return home than confront the alienation he faces in New York. Mafak Bassam Jarbawi, writer/director; Shrihari Sathe and Yasmine Qaddumi, producers (post-production) – $30,000 After 15 years of imprisonment, Ziad struggles to adjust to modern Palestinian life as the hero everyone hails him to be. Unable to distinguish reality from hallucination, he unravels and drives himself back to where it all began. Santosh Sandhya Suri, writer/director; Diarmid Scrimshaw and Anna Duffield, producers (screenwriting) – $25,000 In the rural hinterlands of Northern India, a young woman police officer is drawn into a sex crime investigation steeped in prejudice and corruption. Her journey to confront the killer challenges both who she is and who she wants to become. Sealskin Woman Tani Ikeda, director/co-writer; A-lan Holt, co-writer (screenwriting) – $15,000 A young girl goes to live with her grandparents in Japan after her mother dies. There she discovers that the people who are supposed to protect her can’t, and she must rely on her own magic to save herself. Shit & Champagne D’Arcy Drollinger, writer/director, Michelle Moretta and Brian Benson, producers (screenwriting) – $25,000 Shit & Champagne is a high-octane, high-camp, slapstick send-up of the iconic exploitation films of the 1970s. The film is a tribute to female empowerment flavored with borscht belt comedy, with an original funk score, fabulous vintage-inspired fashion, and cross-gender casting. Strange Fruit Elizabeth Oyebode, writer (screenwriting) – $25,000 Thirty years after slavery’s end, a pugnacious Black newswoman, embarks on a life-threatening investigation into the Black lives that America contends do not matter. Sutro Forest Travis Matthews, writer/director; Mollye Asher, João Federici and George Rush, producers (screenwriting) – $15,000 A young homeless woman prepares to leave San Francisco for a new opportunity, but when her brother goes missing, she loses herself on a mysterious journey that puts her in mortal danger. Todos los Cuerpos Pequeños (All Small Bodies) Jennifer Reeder, writer/director; Laura Heberton, writer/producer (screenwriting) – $25,000 In a not-too-distant dystopian future, in the wake of a climate-change-related disaster, two nearly wild mixed-race girls with special powers named Z and Bub fight to survive along the desert ruins of the former US/Mexico border wall.
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5 Projects Selected for Sundance Institute ‘s 2018 Documentary Edit and Story Lab

[caption id="attachment_30625" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Christopher McNabb, Damon Davis and Sabaah Folayan work on “Whose Streets?” at the 2016 Documentary Editing Lab. © 2016 Sundance Institute | Photo by Jonathan Hickerson.[/caption] Five projects will convene at the Sundance Resort in Utah for the Sundance Institute flagship Documentary Edit and Story Lab on July 6. The Lab creates a space to develop, interrogate and collaborate on independent nonfiction films that are in the later stages of post-production. Through a rigorous process, director and editor teams come together with renowned documentary filmmakers, who advise on the process of re-centering their work around original motivations, tweaking or re-conceiving dramatic structures, and exploring story and character development. Documentary Film Program Director Tabitha Jackson, who oversees the process with Labs Director Kristin Feeley, said “By facilitating these filmmakers coming together to dig deep into context, meaning, structure and narrative — aided by some of documentary’s most innovative and experienced minds — we hope to advance not just these projects, but also make a meaningful investment into some of the most exciting practitioners of nonfiction storytelling for the screen.” Advisors for the Documentary Edit and Story Lab are Maya Hawke (Box of Birds), Sabine Hoffman (Risk), Jeff Malmberg (Spettacolo), Robb Moss (Containment), Jonathan Oppenheim (Blowin’ Up) and Toby Shimin (This Is Home). The contributing editors are Yuki Aizawa, Hannah Choe, Jaki Covington and Katherine Gorringe. For the third year, the Lab will host a writer-in-residence: Eric Hynes joins as part of a program designed to bring film critics and nonfiction filmmakers together to forge a deeper understanding of nonfiction film through immersion in the creative process. The 2018 Documentary Edit and Story Lab projects and Fellows are: After a Revolution (United Kingdom) Giovanni Buccomino (director), James Scott (editor), Naziha Arebi, Al Morrow (producers) — An intimate story, filmed over six years, of a brother and sister who struggle to rebuild their lives after fighting on opposite sides of the Libyan revolution. It is also a close-up on the country’s traumatic course from rebellion, to elections to the edge of civil war. Giovanni Buccomino studied History and Philosophy and gained his master at the University of Rome. While studying Giovanni worked as a sound engineer in music and later moved into film. He has directed two nonfiction features, In the Valley of the Moon and Yanqui. He spent a long time in Libya creating a sound installation of Libya for the Azimut project at the MuCEM Museum in Marseille, directing a 52’’ film for Al Jazeera on the Tabu tribe of Libya. Giovanni continues working as a sound designer and field recordist in documentary, television and fiction cinema, as well as directing his own films. James Scott is a film editor based in Brighton, England, originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He won a Special Jury Award for Editing at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival & the Canadian Screen Award for Best Editing in a Feature Length Documentary for Jerry Rothwell’s How To Change The World. His feature-length cinema documentary credits include, Toby Amies’ The Man Whose Mind Exploded, Jeanie Finlay’s The Great Hip Hoax. Other feature credits include, Jerry Rothwell’s Sour Grapes (Netflix), Dunstan Bruce’s This Band is So Gorgeous; The Search For Weng Weng; and Sophie Robinson’s My Beautiful Broken Brain (Netflix). Crip Camp (USA) James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham (co-directors/producers), Andy Gersh (editor), Sara Bolder (producer) — They came as campers, and left as rebels. Just down the road from Woodstock, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a parallel revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers. Crip Camp explores summer camp awakenings that would transform young lives, and America, forever. Told from the point of view of former camper Jim LeBrecht, the film traces the journeys of several teenagers from camp to the raucous early days of the disability rights movement in Berkeley — and up to the present, in this compelling and untold story of a powerful journey towards inclusion. James LeBrecht has over 40 years experience as a film and theater sound designer and mixer, author, disability rights activist and filmmaker. His film mixing credits include the documentaries Minding The Gap, Unrest, The Force, The Island President, The Waiting Room, The Kill Team, and Audrie and Daisy. Jim co-authored Sound and Music for the Theatre: the art and technique of design. Now in its fourth edition, the book is used as a textbook all over the world. Nicole Newnham is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and director. She recently produced two virtual reality films with the Australian artist / director Lynette Wallworth: the breakthrough VR work Collisions, and the mixed-reality work Awavena. She co-directed The Revolutionary Optimists; co-produced and directed the acclaimed documentary The Rape of Europa. With Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Brian Lanker, she produced They Drew Fire, about the Combat Artists of WWII, and co-wrote the companion book, distributed by Harper Collins. Andrew Gersh is a documentary film editor based in Berkeley, California. He began his career on staff at WGBH in Boston, working on many groundbreaking series for PBS, including NOVA, FRONTLINE and the ten-hour WGBH/BBC co-production on the history of ROCK & ROLL. His latest feature documentaries include Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, REAL BOY. Other work includes Ask Not, Daddy Don’t Go, and Ready, Set, Bag! Forgiveness (United Kingdom) Elizabeth Stopford (director/producer), Gary Forrester (editor) — A modern American ghost story and a house that vanished. In the wake of two seemingly inexplicable shooting sprees, can a community forgive the teenage boy at the heart of its tragic past? After graduating with a Masters in English from Oxford, Elizabeth Stopford took her passion for storytelling to UK production company Tiger Aspect, developing and producing a portfolio of documentaries for the BBC about monastic life – The Monastery, The Convent, and 40 Days (TLC). She set up White Rabbit Films in 2008, and her directing credits include: Long Lost Family, and We Need to Talk About Dad. Selected in 2014 for the BFI’s Guiding Lights scheme, over the past four years Elizabeth has focused on developing two feature film projects that combine the authentic heart of documentary with the craft of fiction: Forgiveness (developed with Film4 and Sundance), and Shooting Kids (developed with the British Film Institute). Gary Forrester is a dynamic and diverse editor moving seamlessly between commercials, feature nonfiction as well as fiction. His film credits include the award winning feature documentary Radioman, directed by Mary Kerr. His most recent film Access All Areas, an indie drama directed by Bryn Higgins (Black Mirror) won best screenplay at the National Film Awards 2017. The Hottest August (USA) Brett Story (director/producer), Nels Bangerter (editor), Danielle Varga (producer) — A film about climate change, disguised as a portrait of collective anxiety, The Hottest August offers a window into the collective consciousness of the present. Brett Story is an award-winning non-fiction filmmaker based out of Toronto and New York whose films have screened at True/False, Oberhausen, Hot Docs, the Viennale, and Dok Leipzig, among other festivals. Her feature documentary, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and was a nominee for Best Canadian Feature Documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards. Story holds a PhD in geography from the University of Toronto and is the author of the forthcoming book, The Prison Out of Place. Nels Bangerter is an award-winning documentary film editor whose work includes Cameraperson, Let the Fire Burn, Very Semi-Serious and War Child. Nels also edited the fiction short film Buzkashi Boys, which was produced and edited in Kabul, Afghanistan and nominated for an Academy Award. Before becoming an editor, he worked in a gold mine, lived in a redwood tree, and earned bachelor’s degrees in English and electrical engineering from Rice University and an MFA at USC. He is based in Oakland, California, and has two terrific kids, ages two and five.
POST-PRODUCTION INTENSIVE
#Mickey (Mexico) Betzabé García (director/producer), José Villalobos (editor), Indira Cato, Joceline Hernandez (producer) — Born in Sinaloa, Mexico, land of drug cartels, carnival queens and deep homophobia, gender fluid Mickey found in social media a way to explore her sexual identity. She has become a Youtube celebrity, but now she is fighting a new identity crisis: a conflict between her online persona and her real self. Betzabé García directed and produced her first feature documentary film Kings of Nowhere. The film won multiple awards at Festivals around the world and was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film at the 2016 Cinema Eye Honors, Best Documentary at the Mexican Ariel Awards, and Betzabé won Best Director of a Documentary Film at the 2016 Cinema Tropical Awards. The film was distributed by FilmBuff and SundanceTV. José Villalobos has been working as an editor of documentary film since 2006. His first feature as a director, producer, cameraman and editor is the documentary film El charro de Toluquilla (2016), winner of the Audience Award and Best Documentary at Guadalajara International Film Festival, best director at Guanajuato International Film Festival, best director and cinematography at Moscow International Documentary film festival, best documentary at Bergamo Film Meeting, best documentary at Tirana Film Festival, among other awards and/or mentions.The film has also been screened at Tribeca Film Festival (Best first time filmmaker nomination), Zurich Film Festival, Sheffield Doc Fest, Munich DokFest, Sydney Antenna international documentary film festival, among others. The film is distributed in North America by Syndicado and have Taskovski Film as its international sales agent.
WRITER IN RESIDENCE:
Eric Hynes is a New York-based journalist, film critic, and programmer. He is Curator of Film at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York, overseeing programs such as the annual First Look film festival celebrating innovative works in the cinematic arts, and the ongoing New Adventures in Nonfiction series. He writes a column on the art of nonfiction, “Make It Real,” for Film Comment Magazine, and other outlets have included the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Slate, the Village Voice, Sight & Sound and Reverse Shot, where he’s a staff writer and host of the “Reverse Shot Talkies” video interview series. Starting in January 2018, he and collaborators Jeff Reichert and Damon Smith launched Room H.264, an iterative, theatrical and gallery-based 21st century answer to Wim Wenders’ Room 666, with contemporary filmmakers contemplating and confronting the future of film.
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3 Filmmaking Teams Win Inaugural $10,000 SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowships
[caption id="attachment_30369" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Isabel Castro, Ted Passon, and Yoni Brook[/caption] Three filmmaking teams -Isabel Castro, Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and Ted Passon and Yoni Brook – have been awarded the inaugural SFFILM Catapult Film Fellowships. Fellowships are awarded to filmmakers working in the early stages of developing compelling, story-driven documentary features. The inaugural fellowships will run July through December of this year. Also, in keeping with SFFILM’s broader commitment to the Bay Area’s documentary filmmaking community, SFFILM’s popular Doc Talks series of nonfiction filmmaking workshops will continue at the organization’s FilmHouse residency space through a renewed grant from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The first of its kind in the United States, the SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowship supports documentary filmmakers working in the early development stage by providing financial support, mentorship, and continued artistic and industry guidance through the completion of their films. This fellowship seeks to provide direct assistance at the point in the filmmaking process when finding funding is critical, yet few funding opportunities from traditional granting programs exist. By providing support before the fundraising process even begins, this opportunity will facilitate the creation of strong grant proposals and fundraising trailers that will allow these projects to evolve through development and into production. “Each of these fellows has taken on a strikingly different project,” said SFFILM Director of Artist Development, Caroline von Kühn. “This inaugural group of fellows brings us an intimate, acutely relevant story about a family, a closely observed exploration of a political institution, and a hybrid film about a novelist’s inner landscape and acts of resistance. What ties them together is a clarity of vision and a deep curiosity. We are excited to provide early support to these compassionate, ambitious storytellers as they undertake their investigations and bring their visions to life.”
2018 SFFILM CATAPULT DOCUMENTARY FELLOWSHIPS
Isabel Castro: Mixed Status Isabel Castro is an award-winning Mexican American documentary director, producer, and cinematographer. In addition to winning a 2015 GLAAD Award for her directorial debut Crossing Over, she worked on two seasons of the Emmy-award winning series VICE on HBO and helped launch VICE News Tonight on HBO as a producer covering civil rights and policy. Her work there was nominated for a News Emmy in 2017. She is currently freelancing as a video journalist for the New York Times and producing an interview series about immigration for the Marshall Project. About Mixed Status: The mother? Undocumented. The father? Deported. The children? One citizen, two Dreamers. Against the backdrop of shifting border immigration policy, the Arvizus, a mixed-status family in El Paso, Texas, navigate love, work, and the desire for a better life. Ted Passon and Yoni Brook: Philly District Attorney (working title) Ted Passon is an award-winning filmmaker and video artist. He is a 2016 Sundance Lab Creative Summit Fellow. He is also a recipient of the Pew Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship Grant and the Garrett Scott Documentary Development Grant. Passon has exhibited his award-winning short films in festivals and galleries around the US and abroad including exhibitions by the Whitney Museum, French Institute Alliance Francais, and the TBA Festival. Passon was a 2016 Artist in Residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts in San Francisco. Yoni Brook is an Independent Spirit Award-nominated cinematographer and producer. He co-shot and produced the feature Menashe which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by A24. His cinematography credits include Valley of Saints, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the Audience Award and Alfred P. Sloan Award. As a documentary director, his films have premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival (Best Documentary Short), True/False Film Festival, Berlin Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). About Philly District Attorney: A band of activists, led by defense attorney Larry Krasner, takes the reins of the agency at the center of mass incarceration: the district attorney’s office. Embedded behind closed doors, the filmmakers capture an unprecedented criminal justice experiment as it unfolds and asks if real reform is possible. Malika Zouhali-Worrall: Untitled Dystopia Film Malika Zouhali-Worrall is an Emmy award-winning director and editor. Her first film, Call me Kuchu, a collaboration with Katherine Fairfax Wright, screened at more than 200 film festivals, and received 20 awards, including the Berlinale’s Teddy Award. Her second film, Thank You for Playing, a collaboration with David Osit and an ITVS/POV co-production, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on POV. Zouhali-Worrall is a Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellow and an alum of the Film Independent Documentary Lab, Tribeca All Access, the Garrett Scott Documentary Development grant, and Firelight Producers Lab. In 2012, Filmmaker magazine named Malika one of 25 New Faces of Independent Film About Untitled Dystopia Film: Caught in a modern-day dystopia, a novelist uses fiction to examine the very real brutality and absurdity of authoritarian rule. The selected SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellows will receive:
- A $10,000 cash grant
- Time spent developing their project at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s artist community space. Residency at FilmHouse includes access to its robust series of presentations and workshops with leading industry professionals, peer reviews, and networking opportunities Strategic consultation from SFFILM and Catapult Film Fund staff, as well as documentary mentors, guiding them artistically and with industry support to successfully enter fundraising and production
- In addition to funding resources and consultation services from SFFILM and Catapult, fellows will be included in a robust mentorship program as part of the FilmHouse resident community and a select group of additional documentary advisors. Integrated into SFFILM’s mentor- and peer-oriented support structures, SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellows will have access to an established network of directors, producers, editors, managers, and legal consultants to help navigate their looming funding and producing concerns.
The fellowship selection process seeks out documentary features with an emphasis on powerful stories, compelling storytelling, a broad spectrum of issues and perspectives. The program is open to documentary makers across the US in the development phase of their projects. The application period for the next round of SFFILM Catapult Documentary Fellowships opens January 2019. The program is open to documentary makers across the US in the development phase of their projects.
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12 Canadian Creatives Selected for TIFF Writers’ Studio 2018/19

Today TIFF announced the 12 selected participants in this year’s TIFF Writers’ Studio. The lineup features six women and six men, highlighting Canada’s best-emerging writers and underscoring TIFF’s commitment to gender parity across the breadth of its talent-development programs. The women in this year’s intake will be supported in part by the organization’s trailblazing Share Her Journey campaign, which champions women both in front of and behind the camera. The 2018–19 TIFF Writers’ Studio participants are: Danilo Baracho, Yung Chang, Martin Edralin, Sarah Goodman, Carinne Leduc, Jennifer Liao, Frieda Luk, Kaveh Nabatian, Celeste Parr, Kazik Radwanski, Lina Rodriguez, and Jorge Thielen-Armand. Launched in 2012, the Industry programme provides a space for mid-career screenwriters to consolidate their skills, exchange ideas, and discuss their challenges in a collaborative and artistic environment. This year’s candidates will develop their chosen screenplay with expert support from international script consultants. “We’re delighted to welcome this exceptionally talented group to TIFF Writers’ Studio,” said Kathleen Drumm, TIFF Industry Director. “Now in its sixth cycle, the program has proved successful in preparing Canada’s best and brightest talent for the global film industry. Candidates will be inspired to take their careers to the next level by developing their creative processes in a series of candid sessions with distinguished local and international writing mentors.” TIFF Studio has helped cultivate exciting new cinematic voices. Notable alumni include filmmakers Pat Mills (Don’t Talk to Irene); Molly McGlynn (Mary Goes Round); Joyce Wong (Wexford Plaza); and Ashley McKenzie (Werewolf). Following their involvement in TIFF Studio, these filmmakers have gone on to success. Pat Mills was named one of MovieMaker Magazine’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch in 2018. His film Don’t Talk to Irene won the Comedy Vanguard Jury and Audience Awards at the Austin Film Festival, and was picked up for distribution in the US by Gravitas Ventures. Molly McGlynn won top prizes at the Annapolis Film Festival and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for Mary Goes Round in 2018. Joyce Wong won the Jury Award at the Austin Asian American Film Festival in 2017, the Jury Award for best screenplay at the Hell’s Half Mile Film and Music Festival, and the award for the best narrative feature at the San Diego Asian Film Festival. The same year, Ashley McKenzie’s Werewolf won Best Canadian Film at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. In 2016 she won Best First Film by a Canadian Director and was nominated for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian Film at the Vancouver Film Critics Circle. TIFF Writers’ Studio will run on a monthly basis from June 15 through January 2019 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The sessions will focus on script development, pitching, and creating memorable characters. Participants will receive an Industry Pass for the Toronto International Film Festival in September and for Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival in January. TIFF Writers’ Studio is produced by TIFF International Programmer Jane Schoettle and supported by Share Her Journey.
TIFF Writers’ Studio 2018 Biographies:
Danilo Baracho Danilo Baracho is a Brazilian-Canadian filmmaker who studied audiovisual communication at the University of Salamanca in Spain. He has written and directed five short films, which have been screened at over 100 film festivals around the world. He is an alumnus of TIFF Talent Lab and the Reykjavik Talent Lab. Yung Chang Yung Chang is the writer and director of Up the Yangtze (07), China Heavyweight (12), and The Fruit Hunters (13). He is completing a screenplay for his first dramatic feature, Eggplant, and in production for a feature documentary about Robert Fisk. Chang’s films have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, TIFF, San Francisco, Vancouver, and Hong Kong and have screened theatrically in cinemas around the world. Martin Edralin Martin Edralin is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose films have screened at TIFF, Sundance, VIFF, and Festival du nouveau cinéma. His film credits include Hole (14), which won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Live Action Short; Emma (16), which was selected for the Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival; and Building History: The Story of Benjamin Brown (16), which was nominated for a Heritage Toronto Public History Award. Edralin is an alumnus of the Locarno Film Festival Filmmakers’ Academy and the Reykjavik Talent Lab. Sarah Goodman Sarah Goodman is an award-winning director, producer, and writer whose works have played at TIFF, IDFA, and Hot Docs. Her credits include Army of One (03), When We Were Boys (09), Hidden Driveway (11), and Porch Stories (14). She is an alumna of the TIFF Talent Lab and the Berlinale Talent Campus and a member of Film Fatales. Her next feature, Lake 239, is currently in development, and she is a consulting producer on a scripted series that is also in development. Carinne Leduc Carinne Leduc is an award-winning French-Canadian actor, writer, and director. She co-wrote and starred in her first feature film, 3 Saisons (08), which was nominated for three Genie Awards, including Best Motion Picture. Leduc has directed a number of short films, music videos, and commercials and has two features in development. Jennifer Liao Jennifer Liao is a director, writer, and producer. Her credits include the social-media storytelling project Crushing It! A Social Media Love Story (10), the feature film Sex After Kids (13), episodes of the crime drama Blood and Water (15–), and End of Days, Inc. (15), which was supported by Telefilm Canada. She was also a creative consultant on the TV adaptation of the Ava Lee novels. Frieda Luk Frieda Luk is a director and screenwriter. Her credits include Delicacy (12), which screened at Telluride and Tribeca, and American Sisyphus (12) and The Encounter (14), both of which premiered at TIFF. In 2011 she was nominated for a New York Women in Film and Television award, and in 2013 she received a scholarship to study in France that was supported by the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation. She has an MFA in directing from Columbia University and is an alumna of TIFF’s 2016 Talent Lab. Kaveh Nabatian Kaveh Nabatian is an Iranian-Canadian director and writer. He has spent the last decade directing and shooting fiction films, music videos, television series, and documentaries all over the world, including Montreal, Nunavut, Haiti, Mexico, and South Africa. Recent projects include a feature-length documentary about Leonard Cohen, commissioned by the CBC, and collaborations with Arcade Fire, Leif Vollebekk, Kahlil Joseph, and Half Moon Run. Celeste Parr Celeste Parr made her television debut writing for CBC’s This Life (16), for which she was nominated for a 2017 WGC Award for Best Writing for a Television Drama. In 2017, the pilot for her original drama series The Brac was selected for the TV writing program from the ATX Television Festival and The Black List. Parr is currently developing a television show and several features. Kazik Radwanski Kazik Radwanski studied film at Ryerson University and co-founded the production company MDFF in 2008. His films have screened at Berlin, Locarno, TIFF, Venice, NYFF, and the BFI London Film Festival. His credits include Tower (12); How Heavy This Hammer (15), which was nominated for Best Canadian Film of the Year by the Toronto Film Critics Association; and Scaffold (17). Lina Rodriguez Lina Rodriguez is a Colombian-Canadian filmmaker. Her short films have played the Images Festival and NYFF, and her film and video installations and performances have been exhibited in festivals such as Nuit Blanche. Her first feature, Señoritas (13), premiered at the Cartagena Film Festival. Her second feature, Mañana a esta hora (16), premiered at Locarno, was released in six cities in Colombia, and opened theatrically in New York City and Toronto. Jorge Thielen-Armand Jorge Thielen-Armand is a director and producer. His debut feature film, La Soledad (16), premiered at Venice and screened at over 50 festivals, including the Durban International Film Festival, where it won Best Screenplay. His documentary Flor de la Mar (15) received the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short at Cine Las Americas International Film Festival. In 2015, he founded La Faena Films with Rodrigo Michelangeli. Image: 1st row (left to right): Danilo Baracho, Yung Chang, Sarah Goodman, Martin Edralin 2nd row (left to right): Carinne Leduc, Jennifer Liao, Kaveh Nabatian, Frieda Luk 3rd row (left to right): Celeste Parr, Kazik Radwanski, Jorge Thielen-Armand, Lina Rodriguez
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Film Projects by Manuel Abramovich, Grigory Kolomytsev, Elena López Riera, Arantza Santesteban, and Nele Wohlatz Selected for 4th Ikusmira Berriak

[caption id="attachment_29451" align="aligncenter" width="1000"] CHUPACABRA[/caption] Filmmakers from Germany, Argentina, Spain, and Russia will develop their audiovisual projects within the framework of the Ikusmira Berriak program, which is celebrating its fourth edition this year. The selection committee, which is comprised of members from the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture, the San Sebastian Film Festival and, for the first time, Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, has selected the following projects out of the 155 offerings received from 31 countries: in the international category, El oasis, by Argentine filmmaker Manuel Abramovich (Buenos Aires, 1987) and Dormen os peixes de olhos abertos, by Nele Wohlatz (Hannover, Germany, 1982); in the Spanish filmmaker category, El agua, by Elena López Riera (Orihuela, Spain, 1982); among filmmakers residing in the Basque Autonomous Community, 918 gau, by Arantza Santesteban (Pamplona, Spain, 1979); and among Nest alumni (International Film Students Meeting), Chupacabra, by Grigory Kolomytsev (Krasnodar, Russia, 1990). Projects on daily life in prison, the porn industry, legends, childhood, and alienation inspire the five chosen offerings. The fifth project was chosen thanks to Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola’s partnership in the audiovisual residency program organised by the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture and the San Sebastian Film Festival. Several of the filmmakers chosen have enjoyed considerable success at international festivals. Abramovich has premiered his films in Berlin and Karlovy Vary, where he received a special mention, and last year Soldado, his latest film, was shown at Zabaltegi-Tabakalera; López Riera has presented two of her productions at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes and Locarno; and Nele Wohlatz won the award for Best First Feature in Locarno and Zinebi with El Futuro Perfecto. Kolomytsev was selected two years in a row (2016 and 2017) at Nest, and the Arantza Santesteban’s latest work, co-directed with Irati Gorostidi, was shown at the last Festival in the Zinemira selection, at the Kimuak catalogue sessions for professionals.
PROJECTS

918 GAU
ARANTZA SANTESTEBAN (SPAIN) In the minuscule cell of a police van, a woman that has spent many years in prison told me: to be able to explain what prison is like, you need to have slept in one. Nearly a decade ago, I spent 918 nights in prison. This film is about what it means to live in an isolated world without images. Director’s bio/filmography A history graduate of the University of the Basque Country. She holds a degree in Creative Documentary from the Centre de Dones Francesca Bonemaison (2012, Barcelona). Likewise, she has trained in Documentary Film Writing with Carmen Ávalos (2013, Barcelona). She has carried out specific training with Víctor Erice (2015, San Sebastian) and Patricio Guzmán (2016, Madrid). In 2012, she began to work as a director in various documentaries, including the noteworthy Passatgeres, her first work. Together with others, she curated the GORPUTZ_GRAFIAK exhibition at the Koldo Mitxelena cultural centre (San Sebastian) in 2015. This work brings together genealogy and research work from the Basque Country’s feminist movement. Together with Irati Gorostidi, she directed Euritan in 2017, which was selected in the 2017 Kimuak catalogue. She has made the rounds at festivals such as San Sebastian, Punto de Vista, Miradas Doc, and the Malaga Film Festival. In 2017, she was selected by the Huarte Centre of Contemporary Art to carry out a curatorial research residency, through which she will curate the Imágenes a través: reflexiones sobre imágenes en conflictos (‘Traversing images: reflections on images in conflict’) international seminar in June of 2018. She is a researcher of the Communication, culture, society, and politics master’s program (UNED-Spain), and studies questions that relate to cinematographic representation, feminism, and contemporary political conflicts. Director’s note There are numerous cinematographic narratives about prison, however, in my opinion, they are always missing something. What these images reflect are not daily conditions in prison, but ways in which the popular consciousness about them works. Cells, yards, fences, organised crime, terrorism, and drugs… These are elements that are a part of our prior characterisations. However, it is practically impossible to represent questions that are fundamental to understanding daily life in prison: the passing of time, isolation from the outside world, the physical and psychological consequences of confinement, opaque spaces of domination, etc. This film will address those topics.
CHUPACABRA
GRIGORY KOLOMYTSEV (RUSSIA) Nine years old Andrey lives on the outskirt of a small village near the White Sea. Nervous, tired of poverty and fatherlessness mother keeps Andrey in constant tension and beats him. She threatens to send his son to the orphanage at the slightest misconduct from his side. Once Andrey finds a dead dog on the seashore in a storm – he decides that it is a mystical beast “Chupacabra”, a goat vampire, which will save his mother from ills and help them to reunite. Andrey heard on TV that whom Chupacabra bites at the full moon will become Chupacabra himself. Andrey scratches his hand the dead fang. Director’s bio/filmography Grigory Kolomytsev (1990, Russia) graduated from the Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK) in 2017 (workshop of the Kott brothers). His debut short film Three Sisters (2015) was Semifinalist of the 43d Student Academy Awards. His next short work Mary was shown at more then 60 festivals including San Sebastian, Cairo, Camerimage, ZINEBI, etc. In 2017 he shooted his diploma film I’m Staying on the Black sea shore where he spent his childhood. It was shown at San Sebastian, Premiers Plans – Festival D’Angers, Winterthur etc. Chupacabra will be his debut feature film. Director’s note For me it is very important to make a debut picture about childhood – the necessary distance has already been passed, but feelings and memories are still hot. I was born near the sea. There was my first death experence. Sound of waves and wind is the sound of my childhood, tears of mother is my main humane feeling. Andrey, this small autistic boy, sincerely believes that there is no death, that he can find love by sacrificing himself. This is a film about the ordeal of a little Holy child. It is a “Life of Saint Andrey”.
DORMEN OS PEIXES DE OLHOS ABERTOS
NELE WOHLATZ (GERMANY) Three outsiders in a tropical city, passing through places that could be anywhere. A condominium tower with white, empty rooms, made in China bric-a-brac stores, a shark-infested beach, the sea. Lixue, Ah, and Bo live in a reality that sometimes seems like fiction and, perhaps, a prediction of the future for the world’s cities. Three verses in an incomplete song, but who is speaking through whom? The alienation of the tree, who are so different, yet so similar. Director’s bio/filmography Nele Wohlatz (1982, Hannover) studied art and film in Karlsruhe and Buenos Aires. She created the short films La mochila perfecta and Tres oraciones sobre la Argentina, and co-directed Ricardo Bär. The first full-length film she directed on her own was El futuro perfecto, which was shown at more than 60 international festivals and won numerous awards, including such as the Best First Feature award at Locarno. Director’s note Recife is a city with a great deal of history, yet it seems that urban development is focused on erasing its mark and replacing it with the feeling of an airport: generic towers with private security surrounded by high walls, shopping centres, and urban highways that connect these locations. I want to make a film could take place anywhere, because it is about people that came for different reasons, but do not belong in their new city. After my first visit to Recife I thought, why not here? Behind its anonymous face, the city is full of ruptures, warmth, and peculiarities.
EL AGUA
ELENA LÓPEZ RIERA (SPAIN) It is summertime, and the threat of a powerful storm hangs over a town in the Spanish Levant. Ana is 17 years old and has grown up in the shadows of her mother who disappeared in the last flood, becoming phantasmagorical legend, a character for the townswomen who say that the water there is always mixed with death. In this electric atmosphere before the storm, Ana meets Jose, her first love. Director’s bio/filmography Elena López holds a doctorate in Audiovisual Communication and is a filmmaker. She has directed Pueblo (2015), which debuted at the Director’s Fortnight in Cannes, and Las vísceras (2016), which premiered at the Locarno Festival. She is a member of the Lacasinegra collective, through which she co-directed Pas à Genève. She has also worked as a producer for the Seville, Belfort, and Visions du Réel festivals. Director’s note I was born in Orihuela, a town in the Spanish Levant divided by the Segura, one of Europe’s most polluted rivers. I grew up with my mother, my grandmother, and my aunts, surrounded by women that used to tell all kinds of stories to take the ease off the long afternoons of asphyxiating heat. These stories almost always had a true origin (based on events, secrets whispered between neighbours, or family stories), but changed with each new version until some of them became truly fantastic tales. This is surely why I decided, one day, to make films. It was my way of participating in this popular, collective tale that does not distinguish between history and poetry.
EL OASIS
MANUEL ABRAMOVICH (ARGENTINA) “Why do you want to do porn?” they ask at the casting. “Because I love to feign pleasure”. How does pleasure itself become a performance? If an adult film actor transforms their sexuality into a show, where do they find true pleasure? Director’s bio/filmography Manuel Abramovich (Buenos Aires, 1987) is a director, producer, and directory of photography. His work challenges the limits between reality and fiction, and reflects on the concept of an author in so-called ‘documentary filmmaking’. He has directed La Reina (2013), Las Luces (2014), Solar (2016), Soldado (2017), and Años Luz (2017). His works have received numerous awards, and have been shown at festivals and artistic institutions such as the Berlinale, Venice, San Sebastian, MoMA, Cinéma du Réel, IDFA, Tribeca, Tabakalera, Film Society of Lincoln Center, BAFICI, and Documenta Madrid. He was selected for various grants and residencies, including the Fondo Nacional de las Artes (Buenos Aires), Tres Puertos (Mexico and Chile), EMARE (Germany), and others. Currently, he is developing a trilogy focused on sex work and pornography in three cities: Berlin, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires. Años Luz, 2017, Argentina/Spain/Brazil, 72′. Soldado, 2017, Argentina, 73′. Solar, 2016, Argentina, 75′. Las Luces, 2014, Argentina, 6′. La Reina, 2013, Argentina, 19′. Director’s note El Oasis is a film on the construction of intimacy as a show. This is also the second piece of a trilogy that I am producing on the male body used as a business, focused on pornography and sex work in three cities (Berlin, Mexico City, and Buenos Aires). I am interested in the porn industry as a context to talk about sex in a world where the self is constructed by others, where we must be connected to exist and be seen. How does the body itself become a performance? How does pleasure act? The five filmmakers will enjoy a residency of six weeks in San Sebastian from 20 August. In the first four, the filmmakers will develop their projects at Tabakalera’s Creator’s Space, and will receive master classes and guidance from members of this edition’s expert committee, which includes Irish producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Brazilian filmmaker Sergio Oksman and TorinoFilmLab director, Savina Neirotti, who have guided the judges panel in their selection. In the fifth week of the residency, the participants will prepare the pitching session, which involves a project presentation to the industry during the sixth and final week of the residency. The session is part of the San Sebastian Film Festival. The residents will have the opportunity to arrange meetings with attending professionals who are interested in collaborating in their projects, and will receive an access pass to screenings and the Festival’s other industry activities. Ikusmira Berriak will also provide financial support amounting to 25,000 euros, which will be distributed among the projects selected. In addition, REC Grabaketa Estudioa will offer its feature film post-production services as a prize, which is valued at 35,000 euros. Ikusmira Berriak is a program that seeks to involve new talent as well as producers and people from the audiovisual industry who support innovation and new languages. It is organised by Tabakalera, the San Sebastian Film Festival and Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in collaboration with REC Grabaketa Estudioa and the Basque Film Archive, and is part of the San Sebastian 2016 European Capital of Culture legacy.
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13 Indie Feature Film Projects Selected to Attend Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs 2018

Thirteen new independent feature projects from the U.S., Cuba, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, and Palestine have been selected for the 2018 Sundance Institute Directors and Screenwriters Labs. At the Directors Lab (May 28-June 21), filmmakers will rehearse, shoot and edit key scenes from their scripts, working closely with industry advisors, actors, and production crews to help drive creative growth via an immersive and hands-on experience at the Sundance Resort in Utah. The Screenwriters Lab from June 23-28 fosters a similar environment of dynamic inspiration as participants focus on the art and craft of screenplay writing with one-on-one support from Institute advisors . Overseen by Feature Film Program Founding Director Michelle Satter and Labs Director Ilyse McKimmie, the Labs begin a year-round continuum of customized support for Fellows, which can include creative mentorship, granting, and guidance from industry professionals. “We’re very excited to be supporting this remarkable group of storytellers whose work is defined by their bold and singular visions,” said Satter. “Using the art form of cinema to explore contemporary issues and our essential humanity, their films are deeply personal, powerful, and timely. We look forward to continuing our partnership with these artists as creative and strategic advocates throughout their filmmaking process.” Advisors for the month include Robert Redford, Gyula Gazdag (Artistic Director for the Directors Lab), Miguel Arteta, John August, Ritesh Batra, Charlotte Bruus Christensen, Lisa Zeno Churgin, Sebastian Cordero, Joan Darling, Rodrigo Garcia, John Gatins, Lesli Linka Glatter, Keith Gordon, Randa Haines, Liz Hannah, Joe Hutshing, Azazel Jacobs, So Yong Kim, Ken Kwapis, Christine Lahti, Kasi Lemmons, David Lowery, Doug McGrath, Anthony Mackie, Walter Mosley, Dean Parisot, Rodrigo Prieto, Howard Rodman (Artistic Director for the Screenwriters Lab), Jennifer Salt, Susan Shilliday, Terilyn Shropshire, Peter Sollett, Dana Stevens, Robin Swicord, Joan Tewkesbury, Dylan Tichenor, John Toll, Audrey Wells, Tyger Williams, and Doug Wright. Since 1981, the Feature Film Program has supported an extensive list of leading-edge independent filmmakers at Labs, including Ryan Coogler, Cary Fukunaga, Dee Rees, Benh Zeitlin, Haifaa Al Mansour, Damien Chazelle, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Marielle Heller, Paul Thomas Anderson, Miranda July and Quentin Tarantino, among many others. Lab-supported films that premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival to be released this year include American Animals, written and directed by Bart Layton, Monsters and Men, written and directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, Nancy, written and directed by Christina Choe, Night Comes On, co-written by Angelica Nwandu and Jordana Spiro and directed by Jordana Spiro, Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley, and We the Animals, co-written by Daniel Kitrosser and Jeremiah Zagar and directed by Jeremiah Zagar.
Directors Lab projects
Doha – The Rising Sun (U.S.A./Morocco) / Eimi Imanishi (writer/director): Disheartened by her deportation from Europe, Mariam is forced to return home to Western Sahara. Adrift in the very place that once was her home, she searches for the means to assert agency over her own life. Eimi Imanishi is a Japanese American filmmaker who grew up in France. She directed two award-winning short films: Battalion to My Beat, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Canal+ Award for Best International Short at Clermont-Ferrand in 2017, and One-Up, which won Best Narrative Short at Indie Memphis, was released online as a Vimeo Staff Pick film, and won Short of the Week. Imanishi was supported at the 2018 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and the Film Independent Directors Lab of the same year. Hawa Hawaii (Kenya) / Amirah Tajdin (writer/director): Hamedi, a Muslim drag queen, returns home to be with his dying mother. Back in Mombasa for the first time in decades, yet still facing his mother’s longstanding disapproval of his lifestyle, he decides that Taarab, the fading art of Swahili orchestral singing, may be the only way to mend their deeply fractured relationship. Amirah Tajdin is a Kenyan artist and filmmaker of Afro Arab and Indian heritage. Her co-directed short, Marea de Tierra, premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Chile Factory Residency. The film also screened at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and went on to play at over 20 film festivals worldwide. Her short films Fluorescent Sin and His To Keep played various festivals, with Fluorescent Sin garnering Jury Special Mention awards at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and Film Africa London. The Huntress (U.S.A./Mexico) / Suzanne Andrews Correa (writer/director): In Juarez, Mexico, where violence against women goes unnoticed and unpunished, an unlikely heroine emerges to seek justice. Suzanne Andrews Correa is a Mexican American screenwriter and director and a recent MFA graduate of the Film Program at Columbia University. Her latest short, La Casa de Beatriz, premiered at the 2017 Morelia International Film Festival, received awards from the Princess Grace Foundation and Directors Guild of America, and can now be seen on HBO Latino/HBO GO/HBO NOW. Andrews Correa was supported at the 2018 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, where she was the recipient of the Sundance Latinx Fellowship, and a winner of the Atlanta Film Festival feature screenplay competition. Josephine (U.S.A.) / Beth de Araújo (writer/director): After accidentally witnessing a rape in Golden Gate Park, eight-year-old Josephine is plunged into a maelstrom of fear and paranoia. Surrounded by adults helpless to assuage her and unable to understand her, she acts out with increasing violence, searching for any way to regain control of her own safety. Beth de Araújo is a writer and director recently featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Her feature screenplay, Josephine, participated in the 2018 Sundance Screenwriters Lab and is a recipient of the SFFILM Rainin Filmmaking Grant. Josephine will mark her feature directorial debut. In 2017, Araújo directed 2 episodes of television for Lifetime Movie Network and was a shadowing director within the Ryan Murphy HALF Program. Her recent short film, I Want To Marry A Creative Jewish Girl, was shot through the AFI Directing Workshop for Women, based on her Gawker essay of the same name. The Life and Death of Cassandro (U.S.A.) / Roger Ross Williams (co-writer/director) and David Teague (co-writer): Saúl Armendáriz, a gay lucha libre wrestler, creates a powerful and popular alter ego named Cassandro to help him fight in the ring and face his personal demons. When Cassandro begins to take control, this superhero story gets turned on its head as it looks like Saúl’s alter ego may become his downfall. Roger Ross Williams is the first African American director to win an Academy Award for his short film Music By Prudence. Williams has directed a wide variety of acclaimed documentary films including God Loves Uganda, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and Life, Animated, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2017. He is on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences representing the Documentary branch and serves on the Diversity Committee. The Life and Death of Cassandro will mark his debut as a fiction feature director. David Teague is a writer and documentary film editor. He has edited five Oscar-nominated documentaries, including one winner. His work includes Life, Animated, Cutie and the Boxer, The Departure, E-TEAM, Mondays at Racine, and Freeheld. Shock Labor (Cuba) / Marcos Díaz Sosa (writer/director): Cuba, 1988. Wilma struggles to maintain a small farm in the Cuban countryside while caring for her disabled husband, but her fortunes change when she is discovered to be a talented skeet shooter who can represent her country. As Wilma rises to stardom, a tornado sweeps her away to a vast luxury resort. Though she finds herself lauded by her country’s ruling class, Wilma realizes that there is no place like home and knows she must find her way back to her farm. Marcos Díaz Sosa is a Cuban film director and playwright. At the age of 17, he directed Fractal, a 60-minute documentary that won an award at the fifth Muestra Joven in Cuba. His short film Natural Phenomena premiered in competition at the Guadalajara Film Festival . He has worked with the State Theatre of Jena, Germany, and co-directed the play Bad Taste at the Offene Welt Internationales Festival, Ludwigshafen, Germany, in 2015. Wild Indian (U.S.A.) / Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. (writer/director): Two Anishinaabe men are inextricably bound together after covering up the savage murder of a schoolmate. After years of separation following wildly divergent paths, they must finally confront how their traumatic secret has irrevocably shaped their lives. Lyle Mitchell Corbine, Jr. is a filmmaker whose most recent short film, Shinaab, played at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and 2017 AFI Fest. He was supported at the 2017 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab and has been a recipient of numerous grants and fellowships from Sundance Institute, Time Warner Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Wild Indian represents his feature directorial debut. Wolf in White Van (U.S.A.) / Andrew Bruntel (director), Ben Collins (co-writer), and Luke Piotrowski (co-writer): Isolated by a disfiguring injury since the age of 17, Sean Phillips is the sole creator of The Trace Italian, a turn based, fantasy role-playing game run entirely through the mail. When tragedy strikes two of his young players, Sean is forcoed to re-examine his self-inflicted departure from the world in which most people live. Based on the novel by John Darnielle. Andrew Bruntel was born and raised in a rural town on the edge of Pennsylvania’s rust belt. After studying experimental filmmaking and design in Baltimore, he moved to Los Angeles to work for Mike Mills at The Directors Bureau. He has since become a director and writer, creating award winning short films, commercials and music videos for artists such as Will Oldham, St. Vincent, No Age, and Liars. Ben Collins was born in Alabama and spent the first 24 years of his life in the south. Collins and his wife moved to Los Angeles in 2009, where he worked in commercial casting for several years. He co-wrote the film Super Dark Times, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released in 2017. Luke Piotrowski was born in the suburbs of Chicago, moved to the suburbs of Atlanta, and now lives with his family in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Along with Ben Collins, he co-wrote the 2017 feature Super Dark Times.
Screenwriters Lab Projects:
The Doubt (Palestine) / Ihab Jadallah (writer/director): After twelve years in prison, Ibrahim returns home to his wife and a son he has never met. He goes about rebuilding his life in the West Bank and begins to bond with his son, Yousef, but when he begins to doubt whether he is actually the boy’s father, his world starts to tear apart. The Palestinian filmmaker Ihab Jadallah has written, directed, and produced several highly acclaimed short films, including The Flower Seller , which screened at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival and the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. The screenplay for his feature The Doubt was selected for the Development Lab at EICTV in Cuba, and received a grant from the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. The Legend of Ochi (U.S.A.) / Isaiah Saxon (writer/director): On the Island of Carpathia, a teenage girl breaks with her Cossack father to protect a mythical species of animals who communicate using a unique, non-verbal language. In the process, she sheds new light on the mystery surrounding her dead mother, whose absence from her life is more complicated than it seems. Isaiah Saxon is a writer-director and a founder of the film and animation studio Encyclopedia Pictura. Isaiah has directed videos for Björk, Panda Bear, Kanye West, Grizzly Bear, and others. His work explores the uncertainties of our connection to nature and technology. Noche de Fuego (Night on Fire) (Mexico) / Tatiana Huezo (writer/director): On a remote mountain in coastal Mexico, eight-year-old Ana and her two best friends, Paula and Maria, grow up in the shadow of cartel violence. They kill snakes, and play dress up in the houses of those who have fled, creating their own world in the midst of growing violence. Tatiana Huezo is a Mexican-Salvadorian filmmaker. Her most recent film, Tempestad, was one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2016. Following its premiere at the Berlinale, the film was recognized by the Mexican Film Academy with four awards, including Best Director and Best Documentary Film. Her first documentary , The Tiniest Place, was shown in over 50 international film festivals. Noche En Fuego will be her first fiction feature film. Quiltro (U.S.A.) / Vuk Lungulov-Klotz (writer/director): Feña, a transgender Chilean-American “mutt,” stumbles through a hectic day, negotiating complicated dynamics with friends, lovers, and family as they navigate new incarnations of their relationships. Vuk Lungulov-Klotz is a transgender filmmaker, born in New York City to Chilean and Serbian immigrants. He graduated from SUNY Purchase Film Conservatory and has been working and living in Brooklyn ever since. His debut feature, Quiltro, was part of the 2017 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive. His trans-themed short film, Still Liam, was part of the Inside Out 2017 Toronto LGBT Film Festival, the GAZE international LGBT Film Festival, and was an award-winner at the Trans Stellar Film Festival. Righteous Acts (U.S.A.) / Alicia Ortega (writer): 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 it’s her holy duty to expose the true wages of sin. Alicia D. Ortega was born in Washington, D.C., but considers San Antonio her hometown. She holds a B.A. from Stanford and an MFA from Louisiana State University, where her novel The Ghost You Deserve won the Robert Penn Warren Award for best MFA thesis. A participant in the 2018 Sundance Screenwriters Intensive, Ortega recently returned to Texas. The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program is supported by The Annenberg Foundation; Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; YouTube; RT Features; Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation; Time Warner Foundation; Universal Filmed Entertainment Group; Amazon Studios; Hollywood Foreign Press Association; National Endowment for the Arts; Sandra and Malcolm Berman Charitable Foundation; The Ray and Dagmar Dolby Family Fund; NHK Enterprises, Inc.; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; SAGindie; Grazka Taylor; Rena Dillon Cruz and Rene Simon Cruz; Philip Fung – A3 Foundation; Directors Guild of America; and Writers Guild of America, West. image credit: Cesar Cervantes and Vincent Reyna on the set of “Hot Clip” at the 2016 Directors Lab. © 2016 Sundance Institute | Photo by Brandon Cruz.
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